Operation: Brave New World, A Revolution Calling
by Blandest of Usernames
Summary: In a galaxy far, far away, the rebellion against the tyrannical Empire is still in its infancy, and the crew of the ghost are about to face their biggest challenges yet. Elsewhere in the universe, the fledgling UNSC has barely recovered from the Human-Covenant war, and after the disappearance of a prowler, they assemble a task force to investigate...
1. The Story Begins

All was quiet above the orbit of the green planet of Aldaraan. The dark cold of space, broken up by the endless amounts of twinkling stars, was tranquil, calm. One who is appreciative of beauty might say the sight is priceless. It seemed like this tranquility could last forever, only broken up by the occasional starship seeking to see the beautiful landscape planet itself.

And yet, the universe seemed to have different plans today.

The calm is suddenly interrupted by a fast-moving ship, a freighter from the looks of it, dodging and weaving out of several green bolts being thrown at it through the vast expanse of space. On its tail was a nearly 1,600-meter-long, triangular shaped warship. An _Imperial Star Destroyer_ , the backbone of the navy for the malicious _Empire_. The starship was the symbol of tyranny for the Empire, many enemies and innocents alike had fallen victim to its wide array of weapons and starfighters.

With a few exceptions.

And one of said exceptions was flying right ahead of it.

The freighter, which had been modified, was called _The Ghost_ , more than likely due to its ability to slip past and escape Imperials, and it was fast running out of room to do so again. The Star Destroyer soon began launching several snub fighters, or TIEs as they were dubbed.

The mood on the Ghost had certainly soured.

The mission for the crew on the freighter had been simple enough, a grab and go. Their task was to acquire some much needed supplies for their allies in Phoenix squadron.

Of course, things just weren't really going as planned, as they usually didn't. The first part of the plan had gone smoothly enough, but the discovery of several force sensitive children on the planet in Imperial hands had drastically altered things. They had barely escaped from the Imperial complex that the children were housed in. And now with the Star Destroyer hot on their tails, things were rapidly spiraling out of control.

"Well so much for stealth!" a green-skinned Twilek, the pilot of the ship growled, "Kanan, I wanted you and Zeb on those guns yesterday!"

"I'm on it," yelled out the purple-haired Lasat, Zeb, as he jumped down into one of the turrets. "Kanan, where are Ezra and Sabine?" the Twilek intoned to him. Kanan gave a knowing smile, "Well, Hera, I do believe they're dealing with our guests."

* * *

"Sabine, why did we agree to watch them?" a blue-haired teenager whined in the cargo hold of the Ghost, as he attempted to quiet down a crying toddler, a task far more difficult than it seemed, "I'm not good with kids!" "Then you better learn fast!" the female with dyed light-blue hair responded, "We need to calm them down, Ezra, can't you use those force powers of yours or something?" "I suppose I can try!" Ezra said. The young boy quickly put his hands over the two toddlers, two young human children, and attempted to reach out through his strong connection with the force.

 _Well here goes nothing,_ thought Ezra as he began projecting feelings of calmness to the two. Miraculously, they began to do so.

"Hey, it worked!" exclaimed Ezra happily with a bright smile. Suddenly the ship violently rocked to side as an explosion was heard from outside. The two infants began to cry again.

"Oh, karabast," Ezra grunted in frustration, as Sabine giggled at the younger boy's consternation. "Well, _master Jedi_ ," she snarked, "have any bright ideas?"

"I just hope Kanaan and Hera are having more luck then we are," he replied.

* * *

A TIE fighter screaming across the top of the freighter exploded into a small fireball, destroyed by accurate fire from Kanan, who had manned the top turret of the Ghost.

"Any progress on the hyperdrive!" he yelled through his commlink.

"I'm working on it!" Hera hissed. She turned to an outdated astromech droid, "Chopper is it done yet?" The droid gave a positive sounding beep in response.

Hera smirked, _Good, now let's get out of here before they get a tractor lock_. She turned, and switched on to an open channel to her compatriots. "Strap yourselves in, this is gonna be a bumpy one!" as she quickly flipped the switch for hyperspace.

The darkness of space was suddenly warped to shades of blue, and the stars seemed to bend inward as the ship lurched into hyperspace, leaving the Empire behind.

* * *

In the cargo hold of the ship, Hera's warning had come too suddenly and Ezra and Sabine were caught unprepared as the ship pushed forward. The tripped over each other and landed in a well, rather _compromising_ position with Sabine on top of Ezra.

"Err, Sabine, uh, mind getting off of me?" Ezra said, adding with a nervous grin, "Not that I don't _mind_ you being on top of me of course." Sabine looked down at the teen below her, his face was flushed slightly and he looked a little dazed from the fall, though he seemed fine, as fine as Ezra could be anyway. She rolled her eyes, but still managed an amused, albeit exasperated smile at his not so subtle attempt at flirting.

Key word: attempt.

"Ezra, you're an idiot."

"Thanks," he replied with a grin as she helped him up. The babies in their cradles had relaxed, now that the calm of hyperspace had set in.

"Let's grab the babies and see what the others are up to."

Ezra and Sabine walked into the main hold of the Ghost to discover Zeb and Kanan already waiting for them.

"Karabast, that was too close," Zeb grunted to Kanan. Kanan rolled his eyes.

"Zeb it's always too close."

"Eh, good point, I suppose," the Lasat admitted rubbing the back of his neck.

"Soooo, what are we going to do with these two?" Ezra asked Kanan.

" _We_ will be handing them over to Ahsoka," a new voice popped in.

The four turned to see Hera enter the room with Chopper, "She'll be able to keep them safe and find them a new home," she continued.

"Well, we'll be in hyperspace for a few hours so you all had better find something to preoccupy yourselves with, Hera and I can take care of the babies," said Kanan.

Ezra turned to Sabine and whispered, "See, I told you they are totally a space-couple."

Sabine smirked and Kanan turned to Ezra with a raised eyebrow, "What was that Ezra?"

"Oh nothing, nothing at all," the mischievous teen responded with a dreamy sigh, giving Kanan a face that showed he was clearly lying.

Sabine suddenly spoke up, "Well, I don't think the walls are going to paint themselves," and she began to walk out of the room.

"Oooo, can I help," exclaimed Ezra, giving Sabine the cutest face he could muster, "Please?"

Sabine was unfazed, "Sorry Ezra, this is a _solo_ project."

 _Shoot,_ thought Ezra, _so close_.

Zeb began to laugh as soon as Sabine left the room, "Heh, nice try kid," he sneered sarcastically as Ezra gave him a scowl.

The scowl was short lived as the droid behind him suddenly shocked him with his built-in zapper, as the metal menace robotically cackled.

"Chopper!" yelled Ezra, as Zeb began to laugh even harder at the boy's misfortune. However, the Lasat's amusement was quickly cut off when Chopper bumped into him at full speed trying to escape Ezra, pushing the unaware and off-balance Zeb off his feet with his head connecting with a pole.

The resultant clang made Kanan and Hera both wince as the Lasat slowly recovered. When Zeb got up he growled at the droid, "Alright, that's it." Zeb looked over to Ezra, "Hey kid, waddaya say we explore the inner workings of this here droid?"

"Why Zeb it would be my pleasure."

The droid in question let out a few beeps of panic and wheeled off to the cargo hold to hopefully escape the two.

"Hey, get back here!" Ezra shouted as he and Zeb began to pursue.

"Don't rip the ship apar-," Hera began, but was cut off by a crashing sound.

"Apart," she finished with a roll of her eyes. She looked over to see that Kanan was tending to the babies. Kanan had kept them calm during the chaos.

She walked over to him and observed him and the two younglings, the Jedi Knight seemed to be in deep thought.

"What's on your mind?" Hera asked.

Kanan stood up from the cradles that contained the two kids and said, "I just wonder what would have happened had we not discovered these two, would they become slaves to the dark side, to the Empire? Or would they just be killed off, in order to keep them from becoming Jedi."

Hera shook her head, "It doesn't matter, they're safe now."

"But what about the others, Hera, the ones we can't save?"

His question was unanswered as Hera slipped her hand into his and they looked down upon the two sleeping infants, unaware of the fate they had just avoided.

* * *

Aboard the Star Destroyer, a certain Agent Kallus was less than pleased at the escape of the Ghost.

 _If we had just been here a few seconds earlier, we would have had them!_ Kallus thought angrily.

Kallus turned to a deck officer, "See if you can track them."

The deck officer shook his head, "We've tried already sir, they scrambled our sensors somehow and we were unable to get a lock.

 _Just perfect,_ Kallus thought, _what else could possibly go wrong?_

"Sir, Lord Vader wishes to speak with you!" an ensign yelled out.

 _Ah, that._

"Patch him through," said Kallus as he walked back to the comm room.

The dark lord of the Sith appeared in front of Kallus.

"Lord Vader, sir, I have just encountered the rebel ship known as the ghost and I began to pursue them, however-,"

"Your failure to capture the rebels does not concern me," Darth Vader stated.

"Sir, but I thought-,"

"There are far more force sensitives in the galaxy, these two were expendable."

Kallus looked at the hologram in shock, "But, what if they become Jedi, sir?"

Darth Vader looked at him and said, "Good, symbols of hope will rally more to their cause."

Kallus looked incredibly confused, "Lord Vader, I don't follow what you mean."

"It's very simple, Agent Kallus, in their current state, we cannot defeat the rebels. While they are not a credible threat to the empire due to their scattered state, they are a nuisance. The cells are far too agile and flexible to defeat on their own, they could continue their current tactics for years."

Kallus looked thoughtful for a second and spoke, "What do you propose we do then, Lord Vader?"

"Agent Kallus, I am assigning you the task of a double agent, your goal will be to feed the rebels information and gain their trust as one of their fulcrum agents. I want you to help them unite all their cells together, and recruit all that will join to their cause."

"But that would make them a very credible threat to the empire!" Kallus protested.

"Indeed, it would, but when they are united as one, we will crush them as one, no survivors," said Lord Vader, "This is your mission, you will have all the resources you need at your disposal, do not fail."

"I will not sir," Kallus responded, trying to contain his excitement. _All the resources I need?_ Kallus thought, _this is incredible_.

"I hope so for your sake, agent," said Vader.

"The emperor would be most displeased if you did."

* * *

 _A/N: Hey all, this is the first story I've ever written for this site, the idea for this story has been floating around my head for months now, and I felt I just had to write it out. Any constructive criticism is appreciated. I plan on completing this story._


	2. In Orbit

Admiral James Runion was anxious.

No, he was _worried_.

His ship, the nearly 5-mile-long warship _The Architect_ , had been selected as the flagship of a new battlegroup. A battlegroup that consisted of nearly one hundred warships, it was the largest assembly of war machines since the Human-Covenant war ended nearly 50 years ago.

Such a sizable task force was not created for simply no reason.

However, it wasn't the size that worried Runion.

No, it was the speed in which it was assembled.

The call for his ship and all the others to mass over the orbit of the new home of the UNSC military, the planet known as _Ares_ , had come completely unexpected. There had been no premonition, no warning at all of what was going on.

And that is what concerned him.

 _The last time they assembled a group this large and this quickly was_ -he quickly cut his thoughts off, as memories from his childhood about the slaughter above Harvest flashed in his mind.

 _Let's not go down that road again,_ he thought to himself as he turned to look out the viewport on the bridge of his mighty ship.

Things were different now, humanity was much more prepared than it had been in the past.

Postwar recovery had been quick, and credit had to be given to the Sangheili. Once a former mortal enemy, now almost subservient to the humans. Once it was revealed that the human race had been given the mantle of responsibility from the ancient forerunners, the elites were shocked and horrified. The righteous destruction of an "unclean species" suddenly became the genocidal slaughter of innocent, holy beings.

To say there was an uproar would be an understatement.

The covenant loyalists soon found themselves without any popular support and either were slaughtered by the grief-stricken covenant separatists or disappeared into the darkness of space.

After the purge, the elites entered into a personal union with the UNSC, their debt was unpayable and as such they would be forever allied to the human race.

 _Ironic, isn't it?_ thought Runion, _the bringers of our destruction are now the architects of our progress_.

That's why his ship had been called the Architect, it was the first ship built and designed after the war, and it was filled with hybrids of human-elite technology.

The ship still maintained the role of a large artillery platform that all UNSC ships were based upon. With the massive MAC gun at the front and the hundreds of Archer II missile pods, and a newly minted energy projector, it could kill from a distance. However, with the addition of shields and with the smaller mass driver cannons that fired deadly hard light rounds, the ship could also get involved in slug fights and come out on top.

These new tactics were also applied to all the other warships of the navy, giving them a significant edge in combat, the navy was no longer a pushover.

 _Whatever it is we'll doubtlessly be facing, I hope we can keep that edge,_ Runion thought to himself.

He was dragged out of his thoughts when the elevator door to the bridge behind him opened.

"Sir, your presence has been requested by high command on Ares," the deck officer said to him as he walked up behind the Admiral.

 _High command?_

"Inform them that I will be there momentarily," he turned to another deck officer, "Please prepare me a pelican for my flight."

He quickly turned around and began heading to the main hangar without waiting to hear the officer's response. He knew the task would be done quickly, and done well. His men were the best, and he respected them as they respected him.

Which only made him feel more anxious.

 _If there is something that needs nearly a hundred ships to take down, we aren't going to have light casualties_.

That was the worst part of command, sending the men he loved to die in the depths of space.

And it seemed that this would be inevitable.

A meeting with high command only confirmed his suspicions.

 _Something was about to go down_.

* * *

Staff Sergeant Greg Peters was bored out of his mind.

It was the kind of bored that made you want to groan in frustration and rip your hair out. Minutes seemed like hours, as time slowly dragged by.

For the fiftieth time in the past month he was in one of the Architects lounging areas, one of the rooms designed to keep the crew's morale up in long missions.

However, nothing in the room currently interested him.

He wanted _action_.

Things had been quiet for far too long.

Rest and relaxation were very great things certainly, but too much of a good thing can drive you mad.

Looking around at his 3 other squad mates he could tell they reciprocated his feelings to varying degrees.

On his left, Dave Wallace, (S-64), was currently competing against Julian Hatus, (S-65), in a game of cards, both opponents lazily flipping cards, seeing as how they had already been playing for an hour.

On his right, Heidi Poole, (S-66), was watching a news cast on the holo screen in the room, though she was only paying partial attention, her focus was inward as she looked deep in thought.

Peters let out an audible sigh of frustration.

"Something bothering you, sir?" questioned Wallace.

The Sergeant looked at him, "Yeah, the fact we, _Spartans_ , have quite literally nothing to do except sit here on our asses and _decompose_."

Wallace shrugged, "Not like there's anything we can do about it."

At this point, Julian decided to enter the conversation, "We are assembled in a battlegroup, a large one at that, somethings got to be happening sooner or later."

"Even still, I can't believe we haven't had any action in a _month_. Spartans! Raised from childhood to be super soldiers and now just sitting and doing _nothing_."

Julian looked thoughtful for a second, it was a good point after all, why had they not been called to do something? There had to be something in the galaxy that called for their expertise. The Spartan V program had crafted some of the deadliest warriors since the IIs, and it had been much safer and far more efficient than the programs of yesteryear.

Unlike the Spartan IIIs, who were little more than elite cannon fodder, and the IVs, who were just repurposed ODSTs and troops who showed significant combat abilities, the Vs were the sequel to the IIs. Recruited from promising young students from all around the UNSC's territories and colonies, the children would undergo a rigorous training process, not as brutal as the II program, but longer. When their training was complete, they were some of the most impressive soldiers in the galaxy. They were instrumental in helping drive out and defeat what remained of the covenant in the years after the Human-Covenant war.

Julian shook his head, "There hasn't been a whole lot of action anywhere, the Storm has been truncated, and the various Brute coalitions against us have crumbled, the ships assembling here has probably been the most exciting things to happen this season."

"Speaking of which, you guys should watch this."

Peters looked over Poole, surprised at the normally quiet female Spartan's request. Heidi rarely spoke up much, preferring to observe and assess information in her mind, her speaking up generally meant something important was going on.

The other 3 members of the team looked over at the screen at a breaking news alert that Heidi had re-winded to. A grey-haired anchor appeared on screen.

" _This is breaking news from here at MCCN!"_

" _Top officials are meeting at UNSC headquarters on Ares today, a move that many have theorized coincides with the massing of warships above the planet. The Hegemon of the UN government, as well as the Polemarch and the ten chief Strategos of the UNSC have announced their presence at the meeting. The UNSC press secretary Ethan Urse has stated that the meeting will be a discussion of galactic security. We will update this story by the hour._

 _Also in the news-_

The man was cut off by Heidi turning off the screen.

"So, high command is here now," said Julian, "wonder what the special occasion is."

"Probably here to figure out new ways to bore Sargey here to death," Wallace snickered.

Peters rolled his eyes, "Don't pretend like you don't want some action Wallace."

"You don't hear ME complaining about it now like a broken record, do ya Sargey?"

Julian raised an eyebrow in amusement, as Peters looked at him in consternation, "I haven't even said ONE thing about it today until-"

"Please, I can practically _hear_ your wallowing."

Peters was about to retort, when a bright light suddenly flashed into existence in the middle of the room.

The light swirled until it formed a small figure, a bearded man dressed in a black suit with a top hat.

The figure spoke.

"I hate to interrupt you boys and your wonderful conversation, but I'm afraid you have been requested as an escort for our good ole' Admiral down in the main bay."

"Roger that Lincoln," said Peters as the squads Artificial Intelligence tipped his hat and disappeared again.

"It would appear as if the wait is over."

* * *

Admiral Runion exited the lift down to the main hangar bay on board the Architect, flanked by ODST troopers.

As he made his way to his Pelican, he looked around.

The hangar was alive with activity.

There were hundreds of various fighters, bombers, and transports being maintained by the crews on deck. Sabre fighters, Broadsword interceptors, Longsword fighter bombers, and Shortsword heavy bombers all littered the deck, with the crews performing routine checks of the craft. Elsewhere, soldiers and mechanics milled near the center of the hangar, there was no "back" of the hangar because it opened on both sides of the ship.

Runion's attention was dragged to a single Pelican transport where a fire team of Spartan Vs stood waiting.

As the Admiral stepped up the team saluted, with the presumed leader of the team speaking first.

"Sir, fireteam Phalanx is ready to escort you to Ares."

"Very good, Sergeant…"

"Sergeant Peterson sir," the Spartan said, recognizing that the Admiral had forgotten his name.

"Ah, yes, Sergeant Peterson, I remember now, your team has a very impressive track record, at that's saying something considering the high regard Spartans are held in."

Peterson nodded, "Thank you very much sir," he said as they bordered the Pelican.

The transport took off and, flanked by several Broadswords, began its journey down to the beating heart of UNSC military power.

* * *

 _A/N: Here's chapter 2 for you, thank you for the support! Feedback is appreciated!_


	3. Operation: Discovery

The dark green colored Pelican slowly touched down on the landing pad at HQ on Ares.

Steam billowed out from the landing struts as the hatch opened revealing Admiral Runion and his Spartan escort.

Awaiting him were hastily assembled lines of UNSC soldiers, rifles at the ready and their white armor reflecting the light from the sun.

It was midday.

Admiral Runion made his way down the lines of the soldiers to a Lieutenant waiting for him. The man spoke up as Runion and his escort came closer.

"Sir, please follow me, the others are waiting."

Runion acknowledged the man's request with a nod, he was nervous again, though this time for different reasons.

He had assumed that he would be meeting with the sector commandants and maybe one of the Strategos. But all ten of them at once, and with the Polemarch?

 _And the Hegemon himself!_

A sort of childish glee came over to him, mixing with his prior anxiousness.

The Hegemon, Brian Silva, was perhaps the most powerful man in the galaxy, even seeing him was considered an honor. He was well loved amongst the populace, which had earned him nearly 4 terms in his office. He was largely responsible for the cleansing of corruption from the Office of Naval Intelligence, notoriously having several members of the quote on quote "deep state" arrested after nefarious details came out about the agencies many doings.

Having a strong post-war economy and giving off the air of a caring man, whilst also having a backbone certainly helped his popularity with the populace as well.

And the Polemarch, the grizzled war vet Craig Loukes, was not someone to be ignored either, he was notorious for being extremely efficient and even ruthless against the enemies of the UNSC.

This would certainly be an _interesting_ meeting.

* * *

The room Runion entered was dimly lit, the only light coming from the table in the center which was projecting a holographic region of space into the air, Runion was knowledgeable with regions of the Milky Way galaxy and the map that was being displayed was unfamiliar to him.

 _Strange_.

Standing already at the table was the man in charge of his ground forces, Chief General Jeff Summers, alongside the commander of the Spartan Vs, Commander Richard Beckham.

Elsewhere around the table were the ten Strategos, Polemarch Loukes, Hegemon Silva, and another woman that Runion didn't immediately recognize.

Suddenly it hit him; the woman was Carol Dovington, the head of ONI.

Runion swallowed.

While the Office of Naval Intelligence had seen significant improvements in ethics in recent years, they were still spooks as far as he was concerned.

He made a mental note to watch what Dovington said closely.

Hegemon Silva was the first to notice Runion, "Ah, Admiral Runion, very nice to see you here in attendance," Silva said with a warm smile.

"Sir, it's an honor to be here."

Silva's smile only deepened, "I would say it's more of an honor to finally meet you, you have a very impressive reputation and track record."

"Which is precisely why you have been chosen to lead this mission," Polemarch Loukes spoke up.

"You are to be promoted to Fleet Admiral of this new battlegroup, which is why your ship, the Architect has been designated as the flagship, the other Admirals will be subservient to your command."

Runion looked up in shock. Fleet Admiral? It was the highest rank in the UNSC navy besides the Strategos, one rung above Vice Admirals.

"Sir, I can't thank you enough-."

"The thanks will have to wait for now," one of the Strategos cut him off, "The only two who know of this mission are the Polemarch and Director Dovington, and we are apparently low on time."

Loukes spoke up "Dovington, you're up."

Dovington nodded and stepped closer to the table.

"As you can see here, we have a map up on the holo, it's probably not recognizable to any of you and it shouldn't be."

She stopped for a second to point at the map, "This part of the galaxy, which is known as the Arctic sector, has been explored, but the area is completely unguarded and uncontrolled by anyone. Our closest territory near it is hundreds of light years away."

The Polemarch spoke up, "It also has no strategic, or tactical importance to any faction in our galaxy, all of the planets there cannot support life, and their natural resources are negligible and hard to find."

Dovington nodded, and continued, "It's a fairly empty region as well, the nebula near the center of the region is the only unique feature. Now, with all territory outside our borders, we have been monitoring it and for the past week have gotten nothing, but silence."

Hegemon Silva furrowed his brow, "I thought we liked silence in our border regions?"

Dovington shook her head, "The silence is precisely the problem Hegemon."

Runion thoughts became confused. What _was_ wrong with silence? After all, UNSC protocol dictated that silence on certain border regions constituted very little of a threat and fleet movements were adjusted to cover areas that required more attention.

Then he remembered who the woman was and suddenly the answer became very clear.

"You had one of your Prowlers combing through that region, didn't you?" he spoke up.

Dovington looked at him with a grim smile, "Indeed we did, Runion, the prowler, _The Shadow_ , has not relayed back to us in over a week."

One of the Strategos crossed his arms, "Could it have gone through the nebula?"

Dovington shook her head again, "The nebula is obviously not the problem, because the second prowler we sent to investigate, _The Eclipse_ , has also disappeared."

The Hegemon frowned, as the Strategos looked at one another in silent shock.

The Polemarch spoke again, "This is highly irregular and-," he cleared his throat, "We might have a First Contact Situation on our hands."

The air in the room was thick with tension.

"We don't really know for sure, we have received no message like we did on… Harvest" Dovington said cautiously, "but it is a possibility nonetheless."

The Hegemon looked at Runion, "Then it is settled, you must leave with your fleet immediately, and figure out what happened, please inform your troops and crew of the situation as soon as you return to the ship."

"Shouldn't we discuss this further," Runion hastily said, "The potential political ramifications of this mission are staggering!"

"Whoever cut our contact off with these ships clearly aren't going to play nice," Summers spoke up, "those scout Prowlers aren't heavily armed at all from the experience I've had with them."

"And whoever took out those Prowlers also can detect our stealth units as well," one of the Strategos pointed out.

"Then we must identify and eliminate this threat at once," said the Hegemon.

Another one of the Strategos stood up, "You must depart at once Runion, my fleet will be prepared to reinforce if need be."

"Then it is settled, Operation Discovery is a go, you are all dismissed."

* * *

Back on the bridge of the Architect, Runion looked out at the vast fleet that he was charged with. Shifting his gaze down to the data manifesto in his hands, he began manipulating the holographic screen.

 **Would you like to see ships in BATTLEGROUP ALPHA by class?**

Hitting the affirm button on the holo, the list popped up.

 **BATTLEGROUP ALPHA**

 **Assigned to OPERATION: DISCOVERY**

 **Ship types:**

 **2 Architect-class super cruisers**

 **3 Infinity-class super carriers**

 **3 Punic-class super carriers**

 **4 Phoenix-class carriers**

 **5 Epoch-class carriers**

 **10 Halcyon-class cruisers**

 **15 Autumn-class cruisers**

 **18 Marathon-class cruisers**

 **20 Halberd-class destroyers**

 **23 Paris-class frigates**

 ***24 Strident-class frigates**

 ***Located inside Infinity-class super cruisers**

Runion closed the pad, and looked to the larger view screen on the ships bridge. On it showed all one hundred ships assembled in their miniature forms, with eight smaller ships representing the Strident-class frigates inside the Infinity-class super cruisers.

Runion turned to a deck officer, "Patch me through to the rest of the fleet, we are about to begin."

The deck officer nodded and began tapping at his console.

"You are transmitting now sir."

"This is Fleet Admiral Runion, all ships, form up on the Architect in a checkered formation, once you are in your positions, give an affirmative. Once all of you are ready, I will give the order for slip space to the exact coordinates HQ has provided you and your ships AI, Godspeed, Runion out."

Runion watched from his viewport as the ships danced around each other, the blue, red, and orange lights of their sub space engines flaring.

The formation Runion had them forming up in was a simple one, strongest ships in the front, with the support carriers in the back, while the destroyers and frigates arranged themselves randomly in a checkered format.

It provided plenty of guns and heavy armor at the front, while also allowing enough room for the anti-fighter guns of the frigates to protect the larger ships from bombers. A good offence, but also a good defense.

The only flaw in the plan was being outflanked, which is why Runion made sure to keep the backup fleets constantly updated as to what would be going on. Communication had been a large problem with the first encounter on Harvest, and with improvements in long range communicators, it would _no_ longer be a problem.

All the ships of the fleet were green on Runion's screen.

It was time.

Runion opened the channel to the rest of the fleet and made sure his voice would project throughout the ships so the crews could hear his voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, today we will embark on either the single most impactful military mission in recorded human history, or this will be the single biggest dud. Whatever is out there that took our Prowlers out, well take care of, whether it be outsiders to our galaxy, or those who already, _unfortunately_ , live here."

* * *

" _And when we find the lousy sobs we're gonna show them just who they are messing with!"_

Around Julian, the troops all chorused an " _Ooo Rah!_ "

" _Keep each other's backs and give them hell, all ships, pull into slip space_."

Julian felt as the ship rumbled again, looking out through the viewport he could see nearly one hundred small tears in space appeared.

Julian turned to Peters, a grin on his face, "Well sir, it looks like you got your wish for action after all."

Peters returned the grin, and turned to face the viewport again as the ship passed through the portal.

" _This is where the fun begins_."

* * *

 _A/N: Another chapter done, feedback is still appreciated, I will update again tomorrow. Thanks!_


	4. Void

All was still in the most barren part of the Milky Way.

The bright orange light of a nebula shone, not quite as bright as the stars, but up close it seemed to hardly matter.

Near the cloud of ionized gasses and space particles lay a massive asteroid field, the rocks were large enough to prevent larger ships from traveling into it, but also dense enough to make flying smaller freighters and fighters difficult, and dogfights impossible.

In the space between the nebula and asteroid field, there was nothing but the freezing vacuum, and two small metallic husks.

A closer inspection would reveal them to be two small stealth ships.

UNSC Prowlers, floating dead in space.

Well, not perfectly dead, but severely damaged anyways.

The engines on both ships were burnt out husks and the long-range com towers had both been violently ripped apart, though the short-range coms were still intact.

However, the hulls and other systems of the ships were operating just fine, and judging from the flurry of activity aboard the ship, so were the crews of both vessels.

"Shit, shit, shit!" groaned a man in his early 50s, his brow wet with sweat, and his face contorted with frustration.

"Is there anything we can do?" he asked again to another man who was inspecting a console.

The man shook his head, "Sorry Captain Armstead, the engines are going to take at least another week to prepare."

The attack had come suddenly and unexpectedly, a swarm of fighters suddenly engulfed the prowler, blasting the engines and communication systems to pieces. Armstead had to watch the same thing happen to the other prowler after it had come out of slip space, presumably after it had come to investigate the disappearance of their ship. The stealth capabilities of the ship had been useless, and the meager weapons the prowler had were hardly enough.

Now they were stuck, their engines a week off from being in any sort of operable status.

Armstead pulled at his hair in frustration, "Well, get this ship operable now! We need to out of here before-," Armstead was suddenly cut off by a helm officer.

"Sir, multiple slip space ruptures detected!"

Armstead watched in horror as one hundred portals opened and a hundred UNSC warships pulled into the system.

* * *

Runion looked out at the plain of space that was before him and his fleet. Directly to his "left" was an asteroid field, a large one at that. Ahead and right was the nebula that he had heard about in the debriefing, it shone a bright orange color that seemed to light up the space around it.

And directly ahead of him were the two prowlers that had gone missing.

"Sir, the Shadow is hailing us."

"Patch them through," Runion commanded.

The form of a ship captain appeared before Runion.

"Ah, Captain Armstead, it's very well to see you alive-"

"Turn back now!" the man yelled at Runion, cutting him off.

Runion looked shocked, "Captain, what are you saying?"

"Get out of here now before-"

His words of warning were cut off, as his transmission fizzled out.

"Sir, we are detecting an anomaly directly opposite our position."

Runion watched as nearly four hundred slip space portals opened.

* * *

From the portals came four hundred ships. The designs of the ships were sleek, with purple colorings. They seemed almost organic, especially compared to the more practical boxy grey ships under the UNSC banner. On their hulls, weapons bristled and hangars began to release fighters.

The Covenant had returned.

* * *

Runion stared at the ships with shock and a little fear.

These were the ships of old that had burned UNSC colonies. These were the ships that had ripped apart UNSC fleets. These were the ships that brought death, destruction, and chaos.

They were supposed to be gone, a ghost from the past to scare and remind humanity of what had happened when they weren't prepared.

The covenant remnant was no longer a ghost it seemed, the rumors were true, and they were very much real.

And now they were directly opposite of his fleet, and they were far more numerous than his forces.

Runion was shaken out of his reverie by the deck officer.

"Sir, they're, they're _hailing_ us!" the officer said, astonishment in his voice.

Runion nodded, regaining his composure.

"Put _them_ through."

* * *

The Prophet of Vengeance was having a very good week.

First, his scouts had reported to him of an anomaly in a seemingly useless part of space, deep within an asteroid field.

Then, he had come across a human stealth ship, apparently investigating the same anomaly that his forces were. Its stealth capabilities had been rendered useless by his new _toy_ , and he had the ship, now ships, disabled. Then he pulled his forces back and waited for the inevitable UNSC move.

He was delighted to learn that his gamble had paid off, sure enough a large UNSC battlegroup had pulled out of slip space to investigate.

Judging from what his, _toy_ was telling him, there were also other fleets waiting to reinforce the battlegroup if needed.

Vengeance smirked, they were behaving exactly as he had expected them to, the memories of Harvest apparently still fresh in their heads.

And once he defeated the fools in front of him, he would claim whatever Forerunner artifact was in the region for himself.

"Grand Prophet," a Brute growled, "the enemy fleet is answering our call."

The Prophet nodded at the creature.

Soon humanity would be on its knees once more, and _he,_ the Prophet of Vengeance would be a _god_.

Everything was going according to plan.

The Prophet smirked, yes this was a good week _indeed_.

* * *

Runion stared at the figure before him.

A _Prophet_.

Since the end of the Human-Covenant war, Prophets had been a rare sight. Most of the species had died off, or disappeared. This one was clearly one of the ones who had disappeared.

The Prophet sneered.

"Hello there, human, I am the Prophet of Vengeance, and starting now, the end of your pathetic species will be my doing."

Runion furrowed his brow, "The war is over, you lost, and we have the mantle," he spat.

"Your kind is not worthy to yield such an honor, when the Covenant found your species, you were weak and pitiful, not even advanced enough to take on the lowest species of the Covenant."

Runion shook his head, there was no point in trying to reason with this, _thing_. The Prophet clearly still subscribed to the old Covenant ways.

"Why have you done this, attacking and disabling our harmless Prowlers, and dragging us out here to the middle of nowhere? To gloat of past glories? You cannot possible hope to defeat all of humanity with just one fleet!"

The Prophet chuckled, "Ah, foolish creature, I have created a bargaining chip, my new artifact has allowed me to see the movements of your ships from light years away, I knew the second your stealth ships disappeared you would come running."

Runion looked shaken, _a Forerunner artifact that could see the movements of fleets from vast distances?_

"What do you want?" he intoned.

The Prophet's grin widened, "It's quite simple, you must simply call in all of the forces that you have in reserve to support you. Do not bother pretending you don't have reserves, my artifact can see them _very_ clearly. If you call them in, your stealth ships will not be violently ripped apart by the plasma torpedoes I have locked on to them and I will spare your fleet from the destruction they will face."

"If you do not, the men on board those ships will die, and so will you."

The Prophet looked pleased with himself and finished, "Choose wisely Admiral, you have three hours."

The transmission cut off.

Runion weighed the options in his head. On one hand, bringing in the Strategos backup fleets would give him the numbers he needed to fight the Covenants forces here, after Vengeance inevitably betrayed them. It would save the men on the Prowlers too, who were helpless to fight back against the fleet.

On the other hand, it would leave the outer colonies in the immediate region completely open to attack, and he now doubted that the fleet ahead of him was Vengeances full force.

The option was clear, they would stay and die, to protect humanity.

"Sir, the Shadow's communication blackout is over, they are hailing us again!"

Runion faced the grim-faced image of Armstead.

"So now you know of our dilemma, Runion."

Runion sighed and nodded, "If we do as the Prophet says, it will leave the colonies open to assault, knowing the Prophet, he has fleets upon fleets ready to invade."

Armstead looked thoughtful for a second, then spoke, "What if I told you there was a third option?"

Runion placed a hand on his chin, "Do tell, Captain."

"Are you aware of why we were out here in the first place?"

The Admiral shook his head, come to think of it, he had no idea why the prowler was out here in the middle of nowhere.

"Well, its technically classified, but I suppose that hardly matters at this point," Armstead said.

"Spill it."

Armstead took a deep breath, "We were sent out here to investigate a strange signal that was picked up by ONI."

Runion nodded, "Continue."

"The reading was Forerunner in origin, judging by the type of signal it was sending out, it looks to be a super weapon."

"How could you tell it was a super weapon just by its signal?"

Armstead scratched the top of his head, "The only other signals we could compare the one we detected to would be the _Halo arrays_."

Runion stiffened with a jolt, "You think what you found could be like the Halos?"

Armstead nodded, "Yes, at first we did at least, but the Prophet knows about it and has left it alone so far in favor of setting his trap, if it was a Halo, he would have just activated it."

"So, what your saying is that it's a more conventional weapon whose importance isn't immediate for the Prophet," Runion said, suddenly beginning to understand the implications of what Armstead was saying.

"The weapon is in the asteroid field, that's why you haven't seen it yet, it keeps the weapon concealed from normal scanners and physical sight, I believe if we can get a team of people on that weapon, we can use it against the enemy fleet. From what we have gathered so far from scans of it, the weapon fires a kind of blast from one main cannon, could be very useful in dealing with their capital ships."

Runion nodded his head, "I have Spartans aboard my ship, I can send them to get the weapon, however they are going to need a distraction to keep the Covenant from attacking them and taking control of the station themselves, God, I'd _kill_ for a Nova bomb right now."

"And how do you plan to do that, Runion?"

Runion looked out past the Covenant fleet, towards the Nebula, and a mischievous grin appeared on his face.

"I think I have an idea."

* * *

Julian Hatus ran through the halls of the Architect, followed closely by the rest of his squad mates in fireteam Phalanx. The team had just received orders from Runion. They, along with several other teams of Spartans were to take control of a supposed forerunner artifact, no, more like a forerunner weapon. Then they were supposed to use the weapon against the covenant fleet currently giving them trouble.

 _Easier said than done_ , thought Julian grimly.

"Let's hope the welcoming committee those forerunners send out is friendlier than the one we got on Requiem," said Wallace flatly.

Julian silently agreed, as much as he loved a good fight, time was of the essence, and fighting off whatever defenses the weapon had would take far too long.

"Whatever's out there, we'll take care of it." said Peters as they reached the Pelican that would be siphoning them to the artifact.

Waiting for them was Fireteam Banshee, and Fireteam Orion. Peters directed his gaze towards the others as the ramp closed.

"Alright people, our job is to get access, and gain control of the weapons main firing systems, at all costs. Time is not on our side, so we must move quickly, and don't worry about making a mess either, the other teams can handle that."

The pilot turned to them from the cockpit, "We're clear to take off, prepare yourselves."

Julian gripped his Assault rifle as the ship lurched and left the hangar of the Architect.

* * *

On the bridge of the Architect, the Prophet of Vengeance was back, looking the Admiral and his deck crew over with a pleased smile, as if he already knew the outcome of the battle that was about to take place.

 _His arrogance will be his undoing,_ thought Runion sullenly.

"So, _Admiral_ , how do you choose?" the smug Prophet intoned, clacking his fingers together.

"I choose," Runion looked away for a second, "neither!" And with that he cut the transmission and roared, "All ships, micro slip space jump, NOW!"

Suddenly, the entire fleet lurched forward into slip space and reappeared within seconds, ahead of the disabled prowlers, except for a Paris-class frigate remaining behind at the asteroid field.

Micro slip space jumps were _very_ risky, but a coordinated commander could pull them off.

"All ships, fire energy projectors and MACs!" Runion shouted.

As two Strident frigates moved to recover the prowlers, the ships of the fleet unleashed a hellfire on the covenant fleet.

The results were devastating.

The Prophet had clearly not anticipated the humans trying such a bold, yet suicidal tactic as a full-frontal assault.

The energy projectors burned holes in many Covenant ships, and stripped the shields from the others.

Then the MACs hit.

Many of the ships were simply ripped apart, some had gaping holes, while some outright exploded as their reactors overloaded.

"43 confirmed kills," the ships AI spoke up.

For a second all was calm as the Covenant Remnant reeled from the strike.

Suddenly, fighters roared from the Covenant fleet, which were quickly intercepted by UNSC fighters, and plasma and shells flew through the darkness of space.

* * *

The Pelicans closed in on the still Forerunner station as the battle raged on miles away.

The station looked like a giant gun, its barrel pointed at the nebula.

The "hangar" the pilot approached was open, and the Pelican maneuvered towards it.

"Spartans you are a go, happy hunting!"

The Spartans flew out the back of the dropship and flew into the hangar weapons raised.

There was nothing, but silence, the warriors lowered their weapons.

"Alright teams, split up and find that control room," Peters ordered. Fireteam Phalanx separated from the other teams and moved through the first entrance. The team moved rapidly through an empty hallway, coming to a closed doorway.

"Well now what?" Wallace grunted.

He soon got the answer to his question as the doors melted into nothing.

Standing behind the door was a Promethean Knight, its orange eyes blazing.

The thing let out a metallic roar and swung its sword at Julian.

Moving quickly Julian ducked the weapon as Peters shotgun barked out, stripping the creatures shields away.

Julian dodged another strike intended for him and brought his pistol under the things chin.

He fired.

The thing let out an inhuman scream as it dissolved into a million particles. Behind it was several other Knights, their eyes glaring menacingly at the Spartans.

 _This is where the fun begins_ , thought Julian as he and his team collided with the Knights.

* * *

The battle in space was at a stalemate.

Fighters roared past each other, getting into dogfights, or attempting to protect their bombers. The massive warships of both fleets battered each other with their plasma cannons and mass driver cannons.

So far, the UNSC fleet was holding up to the onslaught, their shields and weapons were superior to the Covenants aging ships.

However, the advantage would not hold for long.

The Covenant fleet was much larger than the UNSCs and the numbers would begin to whittle the ships of the UNSC fleet down to nothing.

Runion winced as a frigate simply melted out of existence after a plasma missile struck its unshielded hull.

His own ship had taken a beating, its shields were still up, but that wouldn't be the case for much longer.

 _At least the prowlers are safe_ , he thought, _for now._

 _Come on Spartans, I need a miracle._

* * *

Julian gunned another Promethean down, as his team continued along the hallway.

"How many of these god-forsaken things are there?" Peters shouted as he blasted a flying Promethean.

His answer was brought in the form of three more Knights.

"Apparently not enough." Lincoln said, appearing beside Peters.

Suddenly, another door opened and ten Sentinels flew into the hallway.

"Ah, for the love of-," Wallace growled as he raised his weapon to fire.

"Wait!" Lincoln said suddenly, causing the Spartans pause, and look at the AIs holographic image.

"All is not as it appears," he said quizzically.

The Spartans looked on as the Sentinels communicated with the Prometheans.

Suddenly beams of light shot from the Sentinels ripping the Prometheans apart.

A panel opened up and a floating orb with a green light in its middle floated towards them.

"Greeting Reclaimers, I am Void, the monitor of this installation. I am terribly sorry about the Prometheans, they are quite disloyal," the monitor said pleasantly.

The Spartans looked at each other, and Peters was the first to speak, "We need to get to the control center immediately, our time is very short."

"Of course, I am programmed to serve, please follow me, your presence stirred the sentinels and I from a deep slumber."

Peters nodded as the fireteam followed the Forerunner relics down the hall.

The Spartans stepped forward into a circular control room. Peters pointed at the monitor, "Tell us how to activate this weapon."

The monitor replied, "Certainly! Though I am not quite sure why you keep referring to this station as a weapon, the main cannon is only to protect the station and is not its primary focus."

"Then what is its primary focus?" Julian questioned.

"Why, its right there, in the middle of the room."

Julian's gaze followed the monitors and saw a sphere-shaped object sitting on a pedestal. It was roughly the size of a basketball, and had four glowing blue lines running adjacent to each other, breaking up the grey of the object.

"That object is a portable slip space generator, powered by a miniature star, very experimental, the cannon and this station are just meant to house it." the monitor informed them pleasantly.

"Yes, that's very interesting, now please fire the cannon at the nebula," Peters said impatiently.

The monitor looked at the Spartan, "But, that would-,"

"Just do it, please?" Peters added, hoping to keep the monitor happy.

"As you wish Reclaimer."

* * *

"All ships fire your Archers to cover our escape!" Runion shouted. He had received the word from the Spartans that they had the weapon intact and were going to fire it at the nebula.

The main reason he had attacked a numerically superior foe at such close range is because it would keep the enemy in their original positions.

And the enemy was lined up right next to the nebula.

Runion didn't have any weapons powerful enough to fire into the nebula to take out the entire Covenant fleet, but the main gun on that forerunner station would do the trick just nicely.

His battered fleet had already picked up the life boats from destroyed UNSC ships and the fighters were packed into their mother ships.

He watched as his previous order was obeyed and thousands of little suns lit up as the ships unloaded all their archers at once.

It was like a wall of missiles, some hit the Covenant fighters, some took the brunt of the plasma shots fired at the retreating UNSC ships, and most hit their targets, damaging or outright destroying them in a hail of explosions.

It gave the UNSC the perfect distraction and the remaining seventy six vessels micro slip space jumped away to the asteroid field.

That was when the cannon fired.

A white glowing projectile exploded from the main gun and it quickly closed the distance, passing through several Covenant ships, and striking the nebula.

The results were immediate.

A great wave of fire suddenly lashed out, miles upon miles wide, ripping apart the Covenant fleet down to the last ship.

Runion let out a sigh of relief as the men on deck cheered in victory.

 _The day is ours_ , he thought to himself as he looked back at the carnage.

Suddenly, the nebula seemed to pulsate as more and more waves of fire were unleashed from it.

Runion frowned as the mood quickly dampened, a deck officer suddenly spoke up in panic.

"Sir, the nebula is destabilizing rapidly! The star that developing inside of it is showing the beginning stages of a supernova! The shot from the station somehow destabilized the star!"

 _We can't leave_ , Runion realized, _if we go into slip space so suddenly after that last jump, our engines will overload and kill us just as effectively as that supernova._

Runion watched in horror as the nebula began to rip itself apart.

* * *

The Spartans watched the nebula keenly.

"What is it doing?" Wallace asked, more to himself.

"The star inside is collapsing in on itself, and will supernova because of the shot we fired into it," the AI replied nonchalantly.

The Spartans all whirled around and exclaimed at the same time, "WHAT!?"

If the monitor had shoulders, it would have shrugged them, "The blast from the main cannon is an energy drainer of sorts, a very powerful EMP, if you will. The shot stripped away a lot of the energy from the star, without that energy, the star will collapse under its own gravity.

The Spartans stood in shocked silence.

"I tried to warn you, but you simply would not listen and my mission is to obey the Reclaimers," the monitor added.

Peters was the first to speak, "The Admiral just pulled his ships back with a micro slip space jump, if he tries to leave, his ships slip space cores will melt."

Wallace groaned, "Well, I guess that's it, it was nice knowing you all."

Julian was about to lose hope as well when he suddenly remembered one key detail in the room.

 _The slip space generator!_

He whirled around and picked up the sphere and said, "Not all hope is lost yet!"

Peterson smacked his faceplate, "The generator! Of course!"

"Can we use this to get us and our fleet to safety?" Julian question Void.

Void looked back at him, "Well, the generator has no star charts programmed in, so the jump would have to be random."

"That hardly matters!" Julian exclaimed, "come on let's get to the Pelican and get the hell out of here!"

The team took off running down the hallway.

"Void, get us a portal open, now!" Peterson ordered.

"To get a stable portal open would take several minutes, any shorter and-,"

"That doesn't matter, just do it!"

The AI seemed flustered, "This is highly irregular and dangerous!"

"It's the best chance we have!" Wallace reminded the monitor.

They reached the hangar bay where the other Spartans and the Pelican were waiting for them.

"Ok fine, I will do it, I was never told how unnervingly uncaring you Reclaimers are for safety standards.

Wallace laughed, "We're Spartans! We don't do safety standards!"

They reached the Pelican and flew away to the frigate awaiting them.

* * *

Admiral Runion was about to give his final speech of remembrance to the crew, when suddenly a gigantic, shaky slip space portal opened up directly in front of the fleet.

His com flared to life as Peterson, the leader of fireteam Phalanx, appeared before him.

"Sir, if you want to live, fly the fleet through that portal, now!"

The transmission quickly ended.

Runion looked at the portal with doubt, it was very unstable, shaking with bolts of lightning appearing at the edges.

However, his mind quickly changed the nebula suddenly exploded.

"GET INTO THAT PORTAL NOW!" he screamed in desperation.

The fleet obeyed him and the ships began to disappear into the void of the portal.

"Hold on people, this is gonna get bumpy!" he yelled.

The last ship entered the portal and it closed behind it, a wall of flame passing by it and ripping apart the asteroid field and the ancient forerunner station.

* * *

Zeb was suddenly and violently awakened from his sleep by a scream.

He quickly shot out of his bed and noticed that the scream had come from the top of his bunk.

It was Ezra, pale faced and sweating, while twitching and moaning and groaning in his sleep.

"Kid!" Zeb exclaimed in worry, "Kid! Wake up!"

The door behind him opened up, and Sabine walked in, her face twisted with worry.

"What happened Zeb?!"

"I don't know, he just started screaming and woke me up!"

Suddenly, Ezra shot up so quickly that he fell off the bunk.

Zeb quickly caught him and cradled him, his face filled with worry.

He had grown rather fond of the little loth-rat, and being helpless to stop whatever happened was not fun for him.

Ezra was now awake and panting, the color slowly returning to his face.

Sabine slowly kneeled down in front of him, brushing the hair out of his eyes, "Ezra, are you ok? What's going on?"

Ezra looked at her and groaned, "It's like the force was ripped open for a second, I don't know how to describe it."

"The same thing happened to me too."

The group turned around to see Kanan standing there with Hera helping support him.

"It's back to normal now," Ezra said confused, "Kanan, I don't understand, what's going on?"

Kanan shook his head, "The force works in mysterious ways, I know about as much as you know."

"In that case, we should worry about it later, we need to get rested for tomorrow, if anything else happens, let us know," Hera said, reluctantly.

Ezra nodded, he was exhausted and desperately needed some sleep after their last assignment had gone dreadfully wrong.

Whatever had happened, they would deal with when the time came.

* * *

Palpatine growled in anger as he gripped the sides of his thrown, recovering.

In almost an instant, it seemed as if the force had been ripped open, then just as quickly repaired itself.

There had been no premonitions of this occurring, it was a complete and total shock to the Emperor.

And he _hated_ surprises.

He got up slowly, still shaky from the event.

It was time for a talk with Lord Vader.

* * *

 _A/N: Here's an extra-long one for you all! This is where the story starts to really get going!_


	5. Finding Our Bearings

In the unknown regions, the uncharted territories where not even the Empire dared assert its authority, a massive portal suddenly and violently tore open the space time reality, practically throwing the seventy-six metal husks like a projectile into open space.

Then, the portal disappeared, leaving the battered UNSC fleet to find their bearings.

Runion groaned in pain as he slowly got up.

The journey through slip space had certainly not been a pleasant one, and judging by his crew's similar state, it wasn't pleasant for anyone else either.

At least they were all alive, if injured.

The lights on the ship had switched to pale red, as low alarms chimed.

Runion found one of the deck officers already back up at his station.

"Status report," he stated.

"Sir, the ship's power core is damaged, and we have no shields, and there was minor damage to our hull, the air leaks have already been sealed. Our communications are online, and our life support is working at full efficiency."

"And the fleet?"

"Similar statuses, to varying degrees."

Runion nodded solemnly. His fleet wasn't exactly in the order that he wanted it to be, but he'd take slightly damaged and wounded over incinerated by a supernova any day of the week.

The debriefing for this operation would certainly be interesting.

"See if you can hail any nearby UNSC ships or bases, we could use help with repairs, I'll bet those Spartans transported us right next to Ares. They will certainly be receiving some high-class honors when we get home."

The communications officer complied with the order and manipulated the floating screen above his terminal. Suddenly, the man's face paled and he began to search more frantically.

"Something wrong?" Runion questioned.

"Sir, there are no UNSC signals in any of our longest scans."

Runion put his hand to his forehead.

 _It's always something_.

"Could it be that the Covenant Remnant launched an assault on the outer colonies and are jamming the signals of UNSC personal there?"

"If they were being jammed, or if they had been destroyed, then the signal would just be cut off, but our signals aren't being cut off. As a matter of fact, it's as if we are shooting signals into empty space, and the bases never existed in the first place."

Another deck officer suddenly spoke up, "Sir, I think I know why that may be."

"Do tell," said Runion, clearly agitated by his fleets bad luck.

"Our current position could not be matched to any of our own existing star charts, in fact none of the stars that we performed scans on are even located in the Milky Way galaxy at all. The portal appears to have pushed us out deep into uncharted space."

Runion groaned, "Get me fireteam Phalanx, NOW!"

* * *

On the deck of the UNSC Paris-class Frigate _Sinner_ , fireteam Phalanx had hardly recovered from the jostling about in slip-space when Peters communicator beeped and a holo projection of a very disheveled, and slightly irritated fleet Admiral appeared before them.

"Spartans," said Runion, "where in Sam hell did that portal you told us to jump into take us?"

"I believe I can answer that," the monitor suddenly moved into Runion's field of vision.

The man raised an eyebrow at the floating sphere, "A monitor? Well I suppose that helps explain why everything has been a complete disaster so far."

"I am Void, monitor of Installation Theta, I was the one who generated that portal."

Runion's forehead crinkled, "And pray tell, how did you generate it and where did you send us?"

"My installations primary function was slip space technology. During the war with the flood there were three separate projects that were created to deal with the parasite. One was the Prometheans, one was the Halo arrays, and the last was experimental slip space technology. It was an attempt to evacuate the galaxy and relocate the species of our galaxy to a new one. Unfortunately, the program only yielded one successful result, the object the Reclaimer is currently holding, a portable slip space drive powered by a miniature star," said the monitor looking at Julian.

Julian looked down at the object currently still in his grasp, this had been the hope of an entire galaxy, yet it had failed in its intended goal.

And now it had stranded them.

The monitor was still speaking, "The program was shut down when the flood broke through into the inner core of Forerunner planets."

"Ok, we now know _how_ , but what about _where_?" Runion said pensively.

"I'm not sure, with the limited time we had with the star exploding, we had the monitor make a random jump with the device without the proper checking procedures," Peters said.

Runion put a hand to his chin, "Well that would explain why the portal looked so unstable."

"With such a powerful device used in such a _reckless_ matter," said Void, sounding upset, "We could be nearly anywhere in the universe!"

"Is there a way to somehow track our way back with the flight history?" Julian said.

"Yes."

The group all turned to look at the quiet female, Heidi.

"Using the navigation history, our current coordinates, and the star maps we have of the areas outside of the milky way, I could find our way back," she stated.

"All we need to know is the direction we came in," the monitor said thoughtfully.

"Then I give you permission to go with the monitor and our tech teams and find our way back, we need to return, quickly if possible," said Runion.

"It will take time to calculate our way back," Heidi pointed out, "Weeks at best, years at worst."

"Then we better get going," Runion finished, "I will alert the rest of the fleet to our situation, for now we must gather information about where we are."

The holo fizzled out.

* * *

From the belly of one the Infinity-class cruisers, several small black objects spilled out.

Each one of the objects cloaked themselves completely, blocking them out entirely from the universe around them.

Then several portals appeared, all to random locations in this new place and the objects disappeared into oblivion.

* * *

Corusant, now renamed Imperial Center, was filled with _life_.

The bright lights shone with an intensity that could be seen from space. The towering skyscrapers seemingly stretched into space as speeder traffic flew by the buildings.

On the ground level, a large crowd of thousands of species filed pass the scrapers, some heading to their jobs, some heading home, and some heading to one of the millions of dives and bars located on the lower levels of Corusant.

Had any one of the creatures looked up, they would have seen nothing out of the ordinary, just like any other day.

But sometimes, the unseen is far more real than you would think.

The cloaked ONI probe clung to the wall of the tower, its two light blue sensors recording the masses of people walking, transmitting the images back to its masters.

 _Watching._

* * *

The wind picked up, blowing the light green grasses on Lothal around lazily. A white Lothcat trotted by, but suddenly stopped to watch the spectacle it had just encountered.

A young boy was moving around rapidly, swinging a bright blue blade, blocking red shots fired from two other individuals, a colorfully armored female, and a large, purple, hairy creature.

Observing them patiently was an older man with a goatee and ponytail.

He spoke up, "Ezra, focus!"

The boy looked over at him for a second, and a stray bolt hit him on the shoulder.

Ezra yelped as Kanan waved his arms to stop the exercise.

Ezra huffed in frustration as Kanan approached him.

"That was sloppy, at best," Kanan said, "you were distracted, in the heat of battle you can't afford to get distracted."

Ezra groaned, "I know, I know."

"Maybe he just needs to have his head cleared a little," said Zeb, cracking his knuckles together, making it very clear how he would go about "clearing" Ezra's head.

"Sorry it's a little hard to have a clear head, when _someone_ just happens to smell like a Bantha!" he retorted back, "Also, could we please use a lower power setting on those blasters, this hurts!" he said as he rubbed his shoulder.

Kanan shook his head, "No, you need the motivation to avoid getting hit, trust me, when we do the real thing, it'll hurt a lot more."

Ezra nodded, sighing, as Sabine spoke up.

"Maybe you should avoid getting distracted then, kid."

Ezra flashed the girl the most lurid smile he could muster, "Well it's a little hard to stay concentrated when the _sights_ in this direction are as good as they are."

Ezra laughed as he ducked under the stun bolt fired at him, he certainly knew how to get under her skin with the right comment.

Then again, he wasn't really lying about her looking good.

"Alright let's begin again," Kanan sighed, ignoring the teasing.

Ezra nodded and lifted his saber to deflect the shots again.

Truth was, he _was_ distracted, though not by Zeb's smell and not even by his infatuation over the Mandalorian girl. No, his distraction was rooted in something much more serious.

The _rip_ in the force.

It had been nearly a week since the night Ezra had been ripped from his slumber by the disturbance. Even though Kanan had basically brushed off the subject entirely, he was still curious. Something that big, and that _visceral_ wasn't nothing.

He wanted to know what had caused it, and whether it would hurt him or his friends. Because he had a feeling, whatever had caused the disturbance, he would be seeing soon.

The white Lothcat watched them silently. The small creature wasn't the only thing watching them however.

The small probe sat a little while away, cloaked completely, observing and recording the conversation.

The probe then slowly turned and stealthily moved away, transmitting the data it had collected to its masters.

* * *

Armstead leaned back in his chair as he watched observed the feed with interest.

 _A Galactic Empire?_ he thought to himself, _and humans, that speak a language that even I can understand?_

So far, aside from the images, the only information he got was from this galaxies version of the Internet, the holonet as it was called. All the information seemingly painted the Empire in a positive light.

Armstead didn't believe the net for a second. For one, he was amazed at how restricted the average person's access to the net was. Even with his presence and identity cloaked, there hardly seemed to be anything except basic entertainment, traveling information, and propaganda. Even behind the firewalls, there seemed to be nothing, but propaganda.

This Empire was clearly a dystopia.

From what he could gather, all dissent was put down with a brutal iron fist.

While the net had been slightly useful, he still needed some information, the Empire clearly had a lot of secrets and things it was hiding from public view.

And his job was to discover those secrets.

Armstead shut the screen down and headed for a Pelican to take him to Runion and the other admirals of the fleet.

It was time for a debriefing.

* * *

 _A/N: Sorry for the late update, I've been traveling a lot these past few days and have had no access to the internet. To make it up to you, I'll be uploading one chapter every day for three days. Reviews are still appreciated!_


	6. Moving Shadows

Runion paced the room, thinking. Armstead had certainly given him and the rest of his admirals a lot to think about.

So, it _was_ a first contact scenario after all.

It seemed the universe had thrown one curve ball after another at him and his battered fleet.

What surprised him more was the fact that there were humans intermixed with the hundreds of alien species, and that they seemed to speak perfect English.

It would certainly make communicating with them easier.

Even still, it had been agreed upon to avoid contacting this, _Empire_. Judging by how tyrannical the leaders of it seemed upon a first glance, they decided to instead acquire more information, and wait until contact could be established between the fleet and HQ.

 _If only Hegemon Silva was here_ , thought Runion, _diplomacy is his forte_.

He turned to face the ONI captain and nodded.

"Alright, I approve, Operation Moving Shadows is a go."

* * *

The former Jedi temple on Corusant had certainly seen better days.

Once a mighty symbol of the ancient light side users, and a symbol of strength for the Republic, now just a hollow husk filled with imperial symbols and troops.

The refurbished home of the Emperor himself, an attempt to erase the idea of Jedi and the remnants of the Republic on Corusant.

A dark figure moved through the hallways, undetected by the endless security cameras and security teams.

"This is Phantom three," the figure spoke into his communicator, "how much time do I have until the security systems reset?"

"Fifteen standard minutes," came the curt reply from Phantom five.

The figure came upon a four-way intersection, at the same time as two other shadowy figures.

"Phantom one, the archives are supposedly this way," Phantom three stated, pointing in the direction where none of the shadows had traveled from.

"Then let's get moving," said Phantom one.

They moved down the last remaining hallway quietly and quickly, the sound dampeners in their body suites helping to mask the noise they were making.

They found a locked door at the end of the empty hallway.

"Bond, this one's yours," said Phantom three.

A floating light appeared and took the appearance of a man dressed in a suit.

"With pleasure," the AI stated curtly.

The image of the man raised his hand, connecting with the door.

The door opened silently.

Stepping into the room before them, the stealth agents were astonished to find a large plethora of ancient looking trinkets and gadgets.

The place looked like a museum. Their target was in the center of the room, a terminal from the looks of it.

What was inside the terminal was far more important.

From the information they had received from Armstead and his probes, there was a vast amount of knowledge located inside this terminal. Supposedly, it held the most complete record of this galaxy, free of the filtering from Imperial censors.

The location and purpose of the terminal had been gleaned from two Moffs, who were talking just a _little_ too loud about how much of an honor it was that they had gotten to see the room.

Phantom one slipped a chip into the terminal, and Bond appeared again.

"Should be relatively easy to copy everything here, security is very light on this terminal," he turned to face the Phantoms, "it still wouldn't be a problem if the security was tight, these Imperials are _sloppy_ with their networks."

"Just get it done quickly," Phantom one spoke up.

The hologram disappeared and set off to work.

Phantom three moved by several artifacts.

He focused on one, a triangular shaped object that glowed an eerie red color.

As he approached the object, everything suddenly seemed colder.

Phantom three shivered and moved away from the object, clutching his silenced SMG closer to his body.

This place gave him the creeps, it was as if it was a giant _tomb_.

It had also been far too easy to get inside as well, slipping by the practical army that guarded the palace had been simple enough, and so had hacking into the security systems.

There were no patrols through the ornate hallways of the palace.

It seemed like the place was dead.

Suddenly, the door behind them opened suddenly. The Phantoms all cloaked their suits instinctively and watched as an old man hobbled his way into the room.

He wore a dark robe, with a hood covering his features. When his face came into view, it was ghastly, grey and parched, and red rimmed around his yellow eyes.

The man shuffled his way into the room, heading for-

 _The terminal_.

Phantom three bit his lip, slowly slinking his way towards said terminal, reaching it quickly.

Suddenly the man stopped, and looked around, as if he had seen the movement.

The light on Bond's chip changed from red to green, indicating subtly to the Phantom that he was done.

Thinking quickly, Phantom three snatched the chip out.

The man looked directly at the terminal, his eyes searching and for the briefest moment looked directly at the Phantom.

A bit of sweat dripped down Phantom threes face, as nobody moved.

Then the man suddenly turned around and walked out, as if he was answering some unforeseen call.

The Phantoms all let out a sigh of relief, Phantom one put his hand on Phantom three's shoulder.

"C'mon, let's get the hell out of this place."

* * *

Runion read over the data dump, fascinated, to say the least.

His AI, Rommel, had highlighted the most important parts for him.

He certainly knew why the Empire was working so hard to cover everything up.

He knew the story of the civilization wouldn't be pleasant when the beginning of the Empire began with the slaughter of an entire group of people.

 _The Jedi_ as they were called, wielding a mysterious power called the force.

Deciding to worry about this force later, he focused on another section, Rommel had labeled it _war crimes_.

He was horrified, the Empire sure loved genocide.

He read about the gruesome slaughter on Lasan, the destruction of the beings living on Geonosis.

He closed the file.

Operation: Shadows that Moved had been a stunning success, the smart AIs of the ONI Phantom teams were far more advanced than their Imperial counterparts, and outmatched them without leaving a trace.

 _Thank God for the Forerunners leaving all their technology laying around_.

With all of this new information one thing was clear to the Admiral, the Empire could not be allowed to exist.

Runion would have come to this conclusion on his own, his sense of right and justice telling him that the tyranny had to end.

But Runion would never get his galaxy involved in a pointless war for no reason.

Heidi's and Void's work had seen plenty of progress within the last two weeks, for one they discovered that their galaxy bordered the one they were currently trapped in. The unknown regions as they were called, were actually quite close to his own galaxy.

And this caused him great worry.

The Empire was expanding its territory into the unknown regions, spearheaded by someone called _Thrawn_.

Runion had no idea who this Thrawn was, but judging by how the planets he encountered, he got a pretty good picture of just what they were dealing with.

Either you surrendered or you died, and Thrawn was on a crash course with his own galaxy.

It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how the Empire would react to their existence.

It was time for a preemptive strike.

However, it couldn't be done with his own ships, no they couldn't announce their presence yet.

According to Imperial military records that they had _borrowed_ , there were an uptick in rebel activity throughout the outer rim of the galaxy.

Runion punched a button on his desk, "Get me Fireteam Phoenix, I have a job for one of their members."

* * *

Julian filed into Admiral Runion's office on the base that they had established on the planet that the fleet had discovered by accident. It was a strange place, a dark red atmosphere hung heavy over the ships of the fleet. The only forms of life seemed to be small mollusk like creatures and gigantic carnivorous spiders. The spiders had attacked the first landing party, which was a mistake seeing as how the entire team was made up of Spartans. It had been discovered that electronic frequencies freaked the creatures out and a ring of electrical probes had been set up around the massive UNSC base to keep them out.

Runion greeted the Spartan with a nod of his head, "Julian Hatus, part of fireteam Phoenix, you have fought in over forty-five different combat situations, forty-three of which ended in success, you were a part of the Spartan V program and were one of the top candidates there," he looked up from the data pad, "does all of that sound accurate?"

Julian raised an eyebrow, "That is all accurate sir."

Runion shut down his data pad and looked at the armored man, "Then let's cut to the chase, you read that manifesto I sent you, correct?"

Julian nodded his affirmation.

"I want to deliver a blow to this Empire that we have encountered. I have no doubt in mind that if our presence and galaxy is made known to the Empire, they will attempt to subjugate us. And as much as I hate to say it, if they try they will most likely succeed," he huffed, "Their military is vast and expansive, larger than ours and the Elites combined, such is the way of tyrannical regimes."

"However, there are many in this galaxy that despise the Empire, hate its boot pressing down on them. And there have been many revolts thus far. So far all of them have failed, but recently these rebellions have become much more organized, I want you to find and build up one of these cells, and provide your full assistance."

The Spartan looked confused, "Sir, why have you chosen me for this mission? Not that I won't do it of course," he added hastily.

Runion chuckled, "I left a few things out of my original description, you had a propensity for, let's say, _insubordination_ , you reportedly hated authority and you came up with many ways to circumvent it, while also achieving your goals."

Julian shifted uncomfortably, "I'm a little more disciplined now, sir."

Runion grinned, "Son, the heart of a rebel never dies."

Julian returned the smile and shook his head, "You, sir, are definitely something else, I'll miss serving under you," the Spartan said saluting the Admiral.

"Likewise Spartan," said the Admiral, saluting back.

"Now get out of my office, our wonderful ONI spooks can explain the minor details better than I can."

Julian turned around and headed to one of the temporary hangars that housed the Prowlers.

 _Well, here goes nothing_.

* * *

 _A/N: I keep my word my friends! Next one will be up tomorrow!_


	7. Sand, Spice, and Stormtroopers

Julian moved his way towards the temporary hangar where the formally damaged Prowlers were housed. He had already said his goodbyes to his Fireteam, and was now keen on discovering just what ONI had in store for him.

The entirety of the base had been situated on a giant, spire-like plant, the surrounding canyons and the spire itself was filled to the brim with UNSC personal and technology. Most of the ships of the fleet were hidden under the Spire and surrounding foliage, and a lot of equipment was either in the ships, or stocked away in the caverns. With the discovery of the spider-like creatures, it was also discovered that they lived in large tunnel systems. Flame-thrower squads had cleaned the place up nice and driven the spiders out.

Julian ducked under a coral looking outcrop and saw the two small ships, with plenty of black-uniformed men and women tending to them.

A man approached him, the captain of the Shadow, Armstead.

Armstead beamed and clapped his hands together, "Ah, Julian Hatus, very good to see you!"

The man's good mood was more than likely due to the various successful stealth operations the that ONI had been doing lately.

"Sir," he said in reply.

Armstead beckoned, "let's get to work, shall we?"

* * *

Julian followed Armstead to the bridge of the Shadow.

"We will be depositing you to a planet in the outer rim known as Tatooine, to its main spaceport known as Mos Eisley. It's one of the best places in this galaxy to find all sorts of criminals, spies, pilots, smugglers, dissidents, and the like," Armstead explained.

"Doesn't the Empire crack down on this sort of behavior?" asked Julian.

Armstead shrugged, "Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. I know for sure the Empire has one of the largest criminal syndicates, known as the Black Sun on their payroll. It seems only criminal organizations that attack Imperial shipping get any sort of negative repercussions."

He turned to face Julian, "Oh, that and rebels."

They reached the bridge of the Shadow.

"Your task will be to find one of these rebel cells and help it grow, tie up as many Imperial patrols, shipmetns, weapons as possible, things like guerilla tactics and such. Your joining the rebellion must be as organic as possible however, the rebels are very wary of Imperial spys infiltrating their ranks, as such we will only be able to provide limited assistance to avoid raising suspicion."

Julian nodded in understanding.

"We will be dropping you off at the outskirts of Mos Eisley, you will only have with you what you can carry. You'll be using your talents to earn yourself food, or a ride off this planet, I'd recommend mercenary work," said Armstead as he signaled for the Shadow to take off.

"You shall be provided with your Fireteam's AI to assist you, he has a complete record of the archive one of our teams retrieved from the Imperial Capital."

Armstead handed Julian the AI chip, which he quickly placed on the back of his helmet.

"And what shall I do once, I have earned the trust of these rebels?" Julian said as the ship began rising from the ground.

"Contact us with your information, I'm not sure what we're gonna do with these Imperials yet, so be careful. And under NO circumstances must the Empire learn of our existence, understood?"

"Absolutely sir."

"Then let's get going."

* * *

The desert sands swirled around the armored soldier, as the stealth ship left the surface of Tatooine.

Julian watched the ship cloak itself again, then walked to the edge of the cliff he was dropped off near.

Looking out over the cliff, Julian saw the large city scape, breaking up the desolate, endless desert.

 _Mos Eisley_.

* * *

For once, Julian wasn't the single most intimidating thing in the immediate vicinity. Creatures of all shapes and sizes trudged past him.

"My, what an interesting set of beings we have come upon," Lincoln whispered in his ear.

Julian silently agreed with him, scanning the crowd, searching for danger.

His large armored frame kept most of the aliens away from him, though he noticed a few giving him an eye.

"I believe we can begin our search right here," said Lincoln, highlighting a building that looked like it was sunken into the ground.

Julian ducked under the entrance, and entered.

It was a bar of sorts, crowded and misty, a small band playing strange instruments Julian had never seen before were performing a jazzy sounding number.

He cautiously entered the bar, ignoring the eyes on him.

He approached the bartender, the man eyed him with an unimpressed stare.

"Waddaya want?" he said to Julian, a tone of uncaring in his voice.

Julian sat down, "I'll just have a water, if you please."

The man nodded and passed him a water.

Julian eyed the water, then slid his face plate back and revealing his face.

He was a youngish man, in about his thirties, he was clean shaven with blue eyes.

As soon as he finished the water, he was nudged.

He turned around, sliding his face plate back into its original position.

Facing him was an angry looking human male, and a large walrus looking creature.

The man sneered at him, "Why don't you give me that saber on your belt," gesturing to Julian's energy sword.

Julian raised an eyebrow behind his helmet, "And pray tell, why would I do that?"

The man grinned a maniacal grin, "Do you know who we are?" he said gesturing around the bar, around five other people took out blasters, "what do you think you are, newcomer, some kind of Jedi?"

"Apparently, they prey on the new and foolish," said Lincoln into his ear.

 _I'm new alright, but the only fools here are them_ , thought Julian.

Julian unclipped the hilt of the energy sword from his belt and held it out to the man, "Here, go right ahead."

The man grinned wickedly as his compatriots stepped forward, letting his guard down.

 _Now_.

Suddenly, Julian smashed his left fist into the man at breakneck speeds, breaking his nose. In the same motion, he activated the sword and sliced the man across the face, rendering one of his eyes useless.

The man screamed in pain as his immediate companion raised his weapon to fire at the Spartan. The Spartan flashed his foot outwards into a viscous kick. Seeing that he downed the creature, the soldier sprang towards the other five thugs, slicing his blade through the air in a wide arc.

All was quiet in the bar, the band had stopped playing, conversations had stopped, and everyone was staring at the deadly scene.

The only sound that was heard was the sound of five headless corpses hitting the floor.

Julian deactivated his blade, looking toward the poor bartender.

"Sorry about all this," he said as he exited the bar.

The bright sunlight hit his helmet as he nearly ran someone over completely outside.

"Hey, watch where you are going, you could have crushed me!"

Julian looked down at the humanoid figure in front of him, he was wearing a triangular shaped helmet, goggles, and had brown colored, leathery looking skin.

"A Weequay," Lincoln informed him.

The Weequay eyed his armored frame for a second, "Yes, you are just what I am looking for! Seeing as how you nearly crushed me to death, perhaps you can do me a favor, as big and strong as you appear to be!" the creature said, dusting himself off.

Julian cocked his head, "What kind of favor?"

The Weequay beamed, "Ah, I'm not hearing a no! Come, follow me!"

The creature darted off, Julian shook his head, but nonetheless followed him.

Not like he had anything better to do since the bar had been a bust.

He followed the Weequay into a hangar bay, inside of the open topped hangar was a small ship, a freighter.

"Come my friend, all you must do is help this old pirate move some crates onto this ship, yes?" said the Weequay good naturedly.

The Spartan moved to pick up one of the large, heavy crates, he took the lid off one of them and observed the contents.

 _Spice, lots of it, completely illegal too_ , thought Julian, thinking back to the manifesto he read about banned goods on the way to Tatooine.

The old pirate closed the lid for him on his crate, "Perfectly legal, trust me!" said the Weequay winking at him. Then his eyes moved downwards to look at the saber on Julian's belt.

"My goodness, do you know much I could get for that on the black market?" he said awestruck by the weapon.

"So, did five other people, I demonstrated to them how it worked, unfortunately there was an accident and they all died," said the Spartan in a warning tone.

The pirate stepped back, "Of course! Point taken. Still, you must let me at least swing it around a little bit at least once!"

"And why would I let you do that?" said Julian, again.

"There is nothing like a little crate lifting that can form the fondest of friendships!" the pirate said enthusiastically.

The Spartan chuckled, "Perhaps."

The Weequay grinned, "See?! Now that is the spirit my green armored friend!"

Julian smiled at the creature's charisma, then glanced over to the entrance of the hangar. A small alien was talking and pointing at the Weequay and his ship.

The alien was talking to a small group of white armored soldiers.

"Those are Imperial Stormtroopers, this can't be good," said Lincoln.

The pirate followed the Spartans gaze towards the Imperials, then looked back at the Spartan.

"Friends of yours?" asked Julian

"I thought they were with you!" replied the pirate as the troopers approached them.

"Good evening gentlemen! Can I help you with something?" the Weequay asked them.

"You are coming with us and so is your cargo," the trooper responded gruffly.

The Weequay put both hands up, "Whoa now, surely we can talk about this in a _civilized_ manner!"

In response, the stormtrooper raised his rifle.

Suddenly, the trooper and his three companions were felled by four accurate bursts from behind the pirate.

"Come on, get on board and get us out of here!" roared Julian as he shot several more troopers that rounded the corner.

"Aha! I knew you liked me!" shouted the Weequay triumphantly, dodging a blaster bolt and running into the ship.

The ramp closed just as more troopers entered the hangar. The ship took off, and as soon as it left the atmosphere, it entered hyperspace.

Julian reloaded his empty weapon, as the old pirate approached him again.

"Well, it looks like we are stuck together my friend, allow me to introduce myself," the pirate said.

"I am Hondo Ohnaka, pirate extraordinaire!" he said, holding out his hand.

"Julian," said the Spartan shaking his hand in return.

"Welcome to my crew, Julian! I do believe we will make an excellent team!"

* * *

 _A/N: Who doesn't love Hondo? I wanted to parallel this chapter to A New Hope a little, let me know how I did._


	8. All According to Plan

Julian tilted his head to look at the pirate, "Team?"

Hondo shrugged, "Unless you have something better to do."

Julian shook his head, "No, I really don't. I've actually been looking for a way to get off that rock."

Hondo's eyes lit up, "Perfect! Now, we are going to Nal Hutta, to deliver these, uh, very legal and very ethical goods!"

"Right," said Julian, not believing him for a second.

"Well, now I suppose we should discuss, how do we say, _payment_. We will have to split it, forty sixty," said Hondo.

Julian waved his hand, "I don't need your money, so long as I have food and a ride."

Hondo looked shocked, then his face broke into a grin, "You have a _deal_ my friend, no takebacks," he said laughing heartily.

"Come partner, let me give you a tour of my ship."

* * *

Julian and Hondo entered the cockpit of the freighter, "And this is the cockpit!"

Julian nodded, disinterested, he needed more info on who Hondo worked with, perhaps it might lead him his objective.

"So, Hondo, you clearly do work for the Hutts, do you do work for anyone else?"

The old pirate looked thoughtful for a second, "Well, I mainly work for myself, scrounging abandoned places for treasure, work for various, ah, _organizations_ and the like. I used to lead a pirate gang back in the day, now that my friend was the heyday! Unfortunately, after the clone war, the Empire ripped what remained of my crew apart."

"Seems that the Empire's given everyone hell in some form or another."

Hondo nodded, "Indeed, robbing Imperial transports is always fun for Hondo!"

Julian pressed on, "Even so, I doubt whatever you rob from Imperial transports is always valuable to you."

"Well, I do occasionally do work with some rebel cells, they pay quite nice, though I never get to work with them up close and personally," he said. "I've always been a bit of a Republic sympathizer."

"You want the Republic reinstalled?" asked Julian. Everyone is full of surprises it seems.

"Of course! They were much easier to steal from!" laughed Hondo.

Julian rolled his eyes, apparently Hondo wasn't included in "everyone."

Julian's mind drifted off as Hondo launched into a story about a time long passed.

It seemed that fate was working out in his favor. If Hondo had worked with rebels, it would give him a very good chance of meeting some in the future, hopefully soon.

"If you can get him to provide some details about what Imperial shipments he raided, like locations, date, and targets, I might be able to figure out just where we can find these rebels with data from Imperial records," Lincoln whispered in his ear.

"Pardon to interrupt, Hondo, but what did those rebels have you raid?" Julian tried.

Hondo narrowed his eyes, "You are quite interested in rebels, my friend, might I ask why?"

Julian cursed internally, it wouldn't do to make his new companion suspicious of him already, and it wouldn't be good either if Hondo started rumors amongst whatever pirate circles he was doubtlessly a part of that Julian was an Imperial spy or something worse.

Time to improvise.

"Let's just say that the Empire has taken a lot from me and the idea of sticking it to them is very inviting."

Hondo nodded in understanding, "The Empire has taken a lot from many people, especially out here."

"As for your, original question, I really can't say, mainly shipments and the like, very random these rebels are, and I've never really worked personally with them yet."

"Would you ever consider joining the rebellion?" Julian asked softly.

Hondo chuckled, "What are you, a recruitment agent? No, my green companion, the pirate's life is the life for me. I was born a pirate and I will die a pirate!"

Julian chuckled as well, it was a shame really, that he would have to leave Hondo's company at some point.

He was starting to like the old pirate.

* * *

The crew of the Ghost huddled around the holo projector table, alongside Ahsoka, Captain Rex, and Commander Sato.

They were currently located in Phoenix Home, and had transferred from the Ghost after Sato had requested their presence.

Sato spoke up.

"We've been receiving strange encrypted messages from a person who claims to be a Fulcrum agent. He, she, or it is not on any of Ashoka's list of Fulcrum agents."

"What have the messages been saying?" Kanan asked.

Sato shifted, "The messages themselves have been generally restricted Imperial information, things like patrol schedules, convoys carrying weapons and supplies, the like."

"The information has so far been incredibly reliable, we've gotten more weapons in a single week from this information that would normally take months to scavenge up," said Ashoka.

Sato nodded, "This leaves us to believe that our source is more than likely someone a little higher up in Imperial ranks."

"So, what does this have to do with us?" Zeb intoned.

"Nothing for the moment," Ashoka said, "but we must be very careful with our new source, there's no telling who it is or what their motivations are."

"Does it really matter what this guy's motivations are if he's helping us take down the Empire?" said Ezra.

Ashoka smiled a half smile, "For the moment, no, but in the future-."

She was cut off as the holo table sparked to life and the image of a Fulcrum agent appeared.

A heavily distorted voice filtered through the speakers.

" _The Empire is transporting a small shipment of Kyber Crystals on the planet of Garel in exactly three weeks from today. The transport is lightly defended due to the Empire believing a heavy presence of troops would attract the attention of rebels. I will send you more detailed information momentarily. Fulcrum out."_

The transmission faded out and the room was filled with silence.

Hera was the first to break it.

"I'll take the Ghost and my crew there and lead the mission personally, if its lightly defended we shouldn't risk exposing the whole fleet to discovery," she said.

Sato nodded his agreement, "A good plan, the rest of the fleet will wait outside the system to aid if need be, now get yourself and your crew to Gorse and wait for the transport."

"I will come along as well," said Ashoka.

"Where Tano goes, I go as well," said Rex.

Sato nodded, "Then it is settled, you are all dismissed."

As the group broke apart, Ashoka approached Rex.

"You know I could simply order you to not come along, since I outrank you by a good margin," she said, knowing what his reply would be.

Rex chuckled, "Well in _my_ book, experience outranks everything."

Ashoka shook her head, smiling, "So, how much experience do I need to outrank you?" she asked the clone quizzically.

"You'll have to be as old as I am, snips," chuckled Rex, using her pet name.

Ashoka smiled at the old name, suddenly she looked forlorn.

"Sometimes I wish things were the way they used to be, fighting back with Master Skywalker and the 501st, it was dangerous, but at least we all had each other and we were on much more even ground," she said wistfully.

Rex put his hands behind his back, "We not be able to fix the past, but we can damn well make sure the future is a better place," he said.

Ashoka nodded and looked back towards the Ghost crew.

Hera and Kanan were walking together and discussing something quietly under their breath.

Ezra and Zeb were poking and prodding each other as they did normally, and following them silently was Sabine and the droid, chopper.

Ashoka watched as Sabine suddenly whispered something to the droid and it opened a panel on its body and an electro probe poked out. The droid shot a glowing orb of electricity from the prod and it hit the boy in the square of the back. Zeb snickered as Ezra whirled around to find a laughing Mandolorian girl and a triumphant droid. Upon seeing the girls wide smile, his angry expression quickly softened and he was soon chuckling along while rubbing the back of his head, Kanan and Hera looking on with amused expressions on their faces.

Ashoka smiled as she watched the group depart.

"Yes, a better future."

* * *

Agent Kallus washed his face in his personal sink in his quarters.

He had just got done relaying his message as Fulcrum to the rebels.

In truth, the Kyber crystal that the Empire was sacrificing wasn't really that important, it was small, used in lightsabers, not quite as large as the ones the Empire needed for, well whatever they were being used for.

He always felt disgusting after sending his messages to the rebels, not because he despised helping the rebels, though that part certainly didn't make him feel better. He felt disgusted because of the men he was dooming to their demise.

The crew of rebels aboard the Ghost were much more merciful then other cells were, but they did hesitate to kill.

It had been decided that his messages as Fulcrum were to be known only by him and the highest of Imperial command, it wouldn't do to let a captured lowly officer reveal their plan to the rebels.

As such, the men who were guarding that shipment had no idea what was coming.

He had raised this issue with Tarkin, but his concerns were dismissed immediately, something about their sacrifice being for the greater good and that such losses hardly mattered.

Kallus had accepted Tarkin's logic, but secretly bristled inside at his reasoning. The losses mattered to him, and they mattered to the troopers and their families as well. They were good men, most of them, and they deserved better.

The Imperial high command didn't really seem to care that much about excessive losses, everyone lower than a certain rank seemed to be completely expendable.

 _Even civilians_ , thought Kallus, shuddering at the memory of the genocide on Lasan.

The Empire had morphed from bringers of peace and order, to a churning death machine, where people were no better than droids.

Kallus growled at himself and shook his head. This kind of thinking was treasonous and worthless, at least the Empire did bring order instead of chaos, and the rebels were the sole cause of chaos.

He was a good soldier and he would do his duty, just like he always had.

Kallus finished up and left his quarters to file a report to Imperial high command, doubt clouding his mind.

* * *

Palpatine looked down at the two beings standing before him.

"What news do you have to report on our disturbance?" he intoned, not happy.

The first, a blue skinned Chiss wearing the white uniform of a Grand Admiral, Thrawn spoke.

"I have found nothing out of the ordinary in my searches so far, without any reference points to go from it makes things quite difficult."

Palpatine nodded, Thrawn was his most dependable commander, even more so than Tarkin. If he could not get something done, then it was most likely through no fault of his own.

He shifted his gaze to the hooded figure next to Thrawn, the new Grand Inquisitor.

"And does your network of Inquisitors have anything useful to report?" asked Palpatine, knowing full well that the Inquisitor had nothing to say.

The Inquisitor shook his head, "No my lord, we have nothing new to add, our numbers are stretched far too thin to get any more results than what Imperial search teams have already found."

Palpatine nodded gravely, "As I suspected, resume your searches," he said dismissing them.

Palpatine turned his chair as a holo of his apprentice appeared before him.

"Lord Vader, how goes our special plan?" the Sith lord growled.

"All is going according to plan, the rebels will soon be ensnared in a trap of their own creation," the dark lord said in his mechanized voice.

"Excellent," said Palpatine, a sinister grin stretching across his face.

The tremors he had felt would have to wait.

He had a rebellion to crush.

* * *

Somewhere in the deep dark of uncharted space, a single UNSC probe flew through space, searching for its home galaxy.

So far, its scans had found nothing in this sector, and it was preparing to depart once more, when suddenly it detected several slip space ruptures.

Out of the glowing portals came several bulbous looking ships, organic looking, and painted a shade of green.

Suddenly, the little probe received a message from one of the ships.

"This is Fleet master R'tas Vadum of the Separatists, contacting UNSC probe Double One Three Six, my little friend, what are you doing all the way out here?"


	9. Distress Signal

_Three standard weeks later_ …

"Remind me again as to why we stole this ship?" Julian grunted at Hondo.

It had been two weeks since he had met and befriended the crazy old pirate, and yet somehow, he felt as if he had been working with Hondo for a year. The amount of absurdly stupid, yet lucrative things he had done in the past two weeks was completely insane.

 _I hope I never see another sarlacc in my life,_ Julian thought. One of the large, disgusting beasts had swallowed some treasure from a crashed merchant speeder and he had tasked with "retrieving" it.

 _It'll be fun he said_ , he thought sourly, blasting his way out of the things guts had not been fun.

They also had yet to do any jobs for rebels yet, and they had avoided Imperial targets so far, though Hondo promised Julian that the opportunity would arise soon.

"Were five generators really worth pissing off Vizago and his entire network off?" Julian asked a second question.

"Give me just a second!" the pirate exclaimed as he dug through the compartment he was currently situated in front of.

"I mean, the droid bodyguards are neat and all, and so is the ship, but we could have gotten much better for half the trouble we have the potential to stir," Julian continued.

Breaking into Vizagos ship on Garel had been relatively easy, and imprisoning said weapons dealer had been even easier when Julian had deactivated his droid body guards with a well-timed EMP burst from his suit.

"Aha! I have found it!" exclaimed Hondo.

"Found what?"

Hondo stood up triumphantly holding a container.

He opened it, revealing hundreds of gold bars.

"Vizagos treasure stash!" Hondo cried out happily, "there's enough bounty here to repair my freighter! And with the generators, we can actually make some profit off this venture! Now that is what I call good business!"

"Well, we better get out of here and dump him somewhere before his buddies discover he's gone," said Julian.

"Agreed my friend, why, Vizago should be thanking us for having mercy on him, any other pirate would have just killed him!" said Hondo as he moved to pull the lever for hyperspace.

"I doubt he'll see it that way," Julian replied, folding his arms.

"And off we go!" Hondo exclaimed, pulling the lever.

The ship began to pull away into hyperspace, but suddenly the cockpit began to buzz with electricity and a popping sound was heard as the engines powered down and an alarm blared.

"Oh great," growled Julian.

"Hmm, it would seem both our hyperspace module and engines have been damaged," Hondo stated the obvious.

He moved to turn off the alarm and frowned.

"Our accident has triggered a distress beacon to the nearby planet. None of his crew were on the planet as far as I can tell, so we might have to worry about Imperials."

"I'll get the engines fixed while you work on the hyperdrive," Julian sighed.

"Can do partner, we must hurry!" Hondo said, waving him off.

Julian nodded and rushed to the back of the ship, hopefully they could get the engines back in working order soon, dealing with stormtroopers was one thing, dealing with star destroyers in a damaged freighter was another thing entirely.

Julian frowned, _wait_ , _how am I supposed to fix this engine_?

* * *

The yellow blaster bolt missed its target, an Imperial helmet, by half a centimeter.

The person who fired said blaster bolt growled in frustration, his electric blue eyes flaring up as he lined up another shot.

"You need to be patient Ezra," the old soldier said to him calmly, "you're rushing your shots, you need to work on your aiming first, then your speed in taking down a target."

Ezra sighed in frustration, "I know how to aim Rex, just gimme a second!"

Rex shook his head, "Anyone can shoot a target in open air, but taking one down that's behind cover is another matter entirely, only practice can get you that. And speaking of which, I haven't seen you practicing your shooting at all in the past week.

Ezra grit his teeth, "Between this, Jedi training, and the endless amounts of chores Heras got me doing I don't have the time!"

"Speaking of which, I do believe it's time to work on our meditation exercises."

Rex and Ezra turned to face Kanan who was approaching them from the ramp on the Ghost where it was parked in the middle of the hanger on Gorse.

"Now hold on just a sec sir, we were right in the middle of something," Rex protested.

"You've had an hour to work with him, now I need an hour to work with him, Jedi training is very important," Kanan said, raising an eyebrow.

Ezra wanted to rip his blue-black hair in frustration. Couldn't they see he was getting pulled in too many directions at once? He would never become a good Jedi, or shooter if he was constantly trying to do everything at once!

"Guys, I'm only one person here, I can't learn all this stuff at one time," Ezra protested.

Kanan frowned, "Ezra, you have the raw talent to do all of this stuff, you just lack the discipline and focus to do so, you need to us help you."

"I can agree with Kanan on this one, I know it's a lot to ask, but we don't have the luxury of time on our side, this isn't a game, and it's very important you hone your skills as a soldier and-" he glanced at Kana, "-a Jedi as well."

Ezra scowled, clenching his fists.

It wasn't _fair_ , he knew it wasn't a game and he knew he was focused, he was just still trying to get used to everything they were having him do.

"Everyone get in here pronto! We've got a shipment to catch!"

Rex, Kanan, and Ezra all looked towards the Ghost at the sound of Hera's voice.

Ezra turned to look at Rex and Kanan, "Maybe I don't want to be either!" he spat angrily and sped up the ramp.

Both Kanan and Rex looked at each with raised eyebrows.

"What was that all about?" Rex asked.

Kanan sighed, "We'll worry about it later, we need to get that Kyber shipment under our control."

* * *

Kanan and Rex entered the Ghost to find the rest of the crew huddled around a holoprojector.

"This will be a smash and grab, the transport is lightly defended, only a few guards. The shipments main form of defense is a beacon that transmits an all clear signal every two minutes. If the signals stop, then the Imps will swarm the place, however if we can keep that signal active it will take several hours before its noticed the shipment is missing, Sabine that will be your job," said Hera.

Sabine nodded and Hera continued.

"The convoy itself is just a civilian speeder, a driver and a passenger, it will be heading through this alleyway in a few hours, we'll cut it off, dispatch the two guards and make our way back here with the Kyber crystal."

"While we are out there, I need you to look out for some power generators, the ones on our cruisers were damaged and I imagine this planet should have some out here somewhere," Ashoka added.

"Everyone clear?" Hera asked.

Silence confirmed that everyone was quite clear.

"Alright, let's get going."

The crew stood up to depart, however Hera held out her hand in front of Ezra, "Oh I don't think so mister, I didn't see you clean the ion scoring off the Phantom like I told you too."

Ezra looked aghast, "But, I didn't have time between blaster and Jedi practice!"

Hera gave him a tight smile, "Well now you can have time for scrubbing practice."

Ezra groaned and Chopper whurbled in amusement behind him.

"What are you laughing at? You're staying to help him."

The droid lowered his arms and gave a mechanical groan.

Hera walked away with the rest of the group as Kanan approached Ezra.

"What happened earlier isn't over, we'll talk about it later."

Ezra rolled his eyes, "Can't wait."

Kanan gave him a look of disproval and then turned and left with the rest of the group.

* * *

Ezra grumbled under his breath as he scrubbed the ion scorings off the top of the Phantom.

"Scrubbing practice," he half whispered, "What a riot."

It had been thirty minutes since the team had left and Ezra still wasn't close to being done with the menial labor.

Chopper whurbled something at him from the cockpit of the Phantom as he ran a diagnostic, something along the lines of "shut up and quit complaining."

Ezra glowered at the droid, his bad mood still in full swing, "How do they expect me to get anything done around here when I've got a million different things to do," he ranted, "and now it's preventing me from going on missions, I thought I was a member of the crew!"

Chopper gave the droid equivalent of a sigh, wishing the young human would just be quiet and get his task done when a distress call suddenly blared in the Phantom.

Chopper beeped in surprise as Ezra jumped down from the ship and quickly scrambled into the Phantom.

Ezra looked at the distress call, "It says it's from Vizago, he's in trouble."

Ezra scratched his head thoughtfully, "Y'know I still owe him after he helped us find Kanan…"

Chopper screeched his instant disproval, knowing instantly what Ezra was planning.

Ezra gave a sly grin, "What's that Chopper? You think we should go see if we can help Vizago out? Why I think that that is a fantastic idea."

Ezra grabbed the controls of the Phantom and prepared to lift.

Chopper beeped at him.

Ezra frowned, "C'mon Chop, waddaya mean I don't know how to fly this, can't be _that_ hard right?"

Ezra's question was answered when the Phantom scraped against the Ghost as it left its docking port.

Ezra cringed as Chopper groaned.

"Ok, not a great start, just getting the hang of it," Ezra said as he steadily flew the Phantom out of the port and into space where Vizago and his ship were waiting.

* * *

Vizagos ship was floating still in orbit, there were no other ships around it.

"We might be too late," Ezra stated grimly.

The ship was undamaged on the outside, which meant that his ship had likely been boarded, if Vizago was truly in trouble. And from what Ezra could see, there were no boarding craft attached to the Broken Horn.

Chopper gave a nervous hum.

Ezra gripped the controls more tightly in his hands, "Only one way to find out I guess."

Chopper beeped at Ezra again.

Ezra rolled his eyes, "No, I'm not running away from my problems, I'm just temporarily helping someone out with theirs!"

Chopper beeped his disbelief as Ezra maneuvered the Phantom to dock with the Broken Horn.

* * *

Walking down the halls of the seemingly abandoned ship, Ezra was creeped out.

Ezra passed one of Vizagos deactivated guard droids, it seemed good as new, just deactivated.

Ezra kept his grip on his lightsaber as they made their way to the cockpit of the ship.

"Chopper, can you head to the engine room and check to see if anything happened there?" requested Ezra.

Chopper whurbled and wheeled in the opposite direction.

Ezra approached the doorway to the cockpit cautiously and slowly entered as the automatic doors slid open.

Immediately the sound of a song hit his ears as he entered the room, beneath the controls were a pair of legs in the air.

"Vizago, is that you?" Ezra asked hesitantly.

"Ah, not exactly!"

Ezra raised his blaster saber and pointed it at the Weequay that stood tall before him.

"Well, hello there!" the Weequay said pleasantly, dusting himself off, seemingly unfazed by Ezra pointing his weapon at him.

"Ah, allow me to introduce myself," he continued as he turned off the music.

"I am Hondo Ohnaka, proud owner of this fine, but currently inoperative vessel."

"Where's Vizago? This is his ship," Ezra pressed Hondo.

"Vizago? Well, we have a mutual friend!" Hondo laughed, "It was his ship, but after a friendly game of sabacc, well, it is now my ship."

"Wait Vizago bet his ship?" Ezra asked, incredulous.

"Yes, right after he bet his droids, which are now also mine. Watch, I turn them on-

Hondo tapped a button on a controller and the guard droids activated.

Ezra whirled around to face the metal hulk and pointed his weapon at it.

-and I turn them off, ha, I love that!"

Ezra put set his weapon to his side, "Well, I guess that could happen."

It seemed likely, the ship was in disarray, it looked like the hyperdrive and engines were both out. Perhaps Vizago had bet the ship knowing it was falling apart.

 _That must be why the distress beacon was activated_.

"Now, you know about me, but who are you?" Hondo intoned.

Ezra's mind went blank for a second.

 _I can't trust this guy; how do I know he's even telling the truth about who he is?_

 _Think Ezra, think_.

Ezra's mind flashed to various people he had met. Suddenly the image of a smarmy, fake-charming, good-for-nothing smuggler who lay the charm on Sabine a little too thick popped up into his head.

"Lando," he said, "Lando Calrissian."

"Lando," said Hondo, "So at last I meet the semi-famous Lando Calrissian! A tad younger than expected, but to have you so young and coming to my rescue, you must be the scoundrel I've heard about!"

Ezra rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, I am pretty good."

"Pretty good!" Hondo laughed, "Say, are you looking for a crew? Good news, Hondo is hiring, and I'm looking for a third member."

"You have a second member?"

Hondo's eyes lit up, "Why of course! He's fixing the engine, quite capable that one, quite rebellious too. If he hadn't joined up with me, he'd probably be with those rebels!"

Ezra raised an eyebrow.

A potential ally, Ezra made sure to remember that detail in case he needed it later.

"Sorry Hondo, but I already have a crew," said Ezra.

A beeping red light on the control panel turned green.

Hondo grinned, "See? The engines are fixed! Ah, I used to have such a large crew, the stories I could tell. And so many of them true!"

Suddenly, an alarm blared from the cockpit, and an Imperial ship dropped out of hyperspace.

Ezra shot up in a panic and quickly ran to fix the still broken hyperdrive.

"You better tell those stories to the Empire while I try to get the hyperdrive fixed!" he said.

* * *

Julian was halfway through fixing the engine, and struggling when the door to the engine room opened.

Julian turned, expecting to see Hondo, but his eyes were graced with the site of an astromech droid.

 _Didn't know Vizago had one of these_ , he thought to himself.

The droid beeped at him in a confused manner.

"I can translate what he's saying to you over your HUD, I've finally gotten binary down," Lincoln offered helpfully.

A text appeared on the inside of his helmet.

 _[Who are you? You're not Vizago.]_

"I'm the new co-owner of this ship," Julian said, tapping his finger against his chest.

 _[Let me guess, Vizago bet the ship and lost.]_

Julian thought about it for a second, then decided to go with the lie.

"Yeah, he did, lost to my partner actually. I suppose that make you part of my property?"

 _[Absolutely not, I'm just visiting here with my foolish crewmate. We were looking for Vizago when we saw the distress call.]_

Julian crossed his arms, "He a friend of yours?"

 _[Business partner, only when necessary.]_

Julian shrugged, "Same here little guy."

The droid suddenly rolled forward and began manipulating the wires.

"Hey, hey! What are you doing?"

 _[Fixing these engines, might as well accomplish something since this was all a wild goose chase, it's a simple enough fix.]_

A sizzle was heard as the droid welded some wiring together and the engines hummed to life.

 _[See? Quite easy, though I imagine you already knew that.]_

Julian grit his teeth.

"Right," he said, as Lincoln quietly chuckled in his ear.

 _[Perhaps we should head up to the cockpit and see what my young and foolish crewmate is up too before he gets himself into trouble.]_

"You don't sound like you have much faith in your companion, little one," Julian said to the droid.

 _[Oh, trust me, he's a trouble magnet. And call me Chopper.]_

Julian shook his head, "Alrighty then, Chopper."

An alarm blared out over the loud speakers.

Chopper and Julian both double timed it to the cockpit.

* * *

"Hello there, is there something I can help you with?" Hondo said smoothly into the comm.

"You are currently trespassing into an Imperial checkpoint, remove yourself now or we will shoot you down."

"Hyperspace would be good," Hondo murmured to Ezra.

"Almost got it," said Ezra, determination in his eyes.

"There, got it!" Ezra said as the hyperdrive turned on.

Suddenly, Chopper and a large humanoid thing in armor ran into the cockpit.

Chopper let out a screech when he saw what was going on as the Imperial ship began to fire at them. He quickly rolled forward and activated the now repaired hyperspace module.

The stars quickly faded into a blue-white-lines and the Imperial ship shot past them as the Broken Horn blasted into hyperspace.

Hondo was the first to speak up, "Well, it looks like we are all stuck together now! Perhaps you can assist us, Lando, on an adventure."

Ezra ignored Hondo and looked at the hulking figure in front of him, getting a strange creepy feeling of Déjà vu.

"Ah, of course you two haven't met yet! Julian this is Lando, Lando, this is Julian!"

Julian and Ezra continued to stare at each other and Hondo clapped his hands together.

"This will be quite fun!"

* * *

 _A/N: This chapter was heavily based on Brothers of the Broken Horn_ _. I didn't want to copy all of the dialogue, so a good bit of it is different. Let me know what you think!_


	10. Hangar Bay Beatdown

Julian looked down at the small boy in front of him.

He was wearing an orange flight suite, and his blue-black hair was long and messy. His eyes practically shone their blue color.

He looked no older than fifteen.

The kid stared back at him, wide eyed, as if he was trying to stare into Julian's soul.

 _Weird_.

The two were brought out of their momentary staring contest by Hondo.

"Lando, maybe you can help us deliver these generators, seeing as how we are now all stuck together and you helped save us from certain doom."

Julian glanced back at the kid, reminded of his name by Hondo.

 _This_ was the famous Lando Calrissian? He was just a kid!

"No offense Hondo, but since when have we worked with children?"

The boy scowled and put his hands on his hips, "Hey! I'm not that young!"

"Now now Julian, you must learn to be more open minded! Young Lando here did fix our hyperdrive," Hondo pointed out.

Julian put a hand on his chin, "His droid friend here also helped fix our engines too," he admitted.

The droid in question beeped triumphantly and Hondo clapped his hands together.

"See? Without these two, we would be space dust! Fate has smiled upon us again and it wants us to stick-," he waved his arms around wildly, "-together!"

Julian looked down at the kid once again, who was smiling brightly at Hondo.

The boy was clearly lying about being Lando, that much was certain. From stories he had heard about Calrissian, he was a sleazy, smooth, con artist.

But this kid practically oozed innocence with his wide grin and bright eyes.

Yet, Julian had been taught to never judge a book by its cover, and Julian noticed that he had two thin scars on his right cheek.

Being a soldier, Julian was well versed in injuries and the scars they can leave behind, hell he had plenty of them himself from years of training and fighting. From what he could tell, the two thin lines were the result of a burn, they were incredibly thin, but also deep as well.

In a Spartans experience, only an energy sword could make such a mark, and though energy swords didn't exist in this galaxy, something caused those marks.

The kid had clearly seen some shit.

Julian's interest was now piqued.

"Alright, fine, if there's danger though, we're hightailing it out of there," he relented.

"I can handle danger, I've seen plenty of it in my life," the kid responded.

"That's what I was afraid of," said the Spartan, turning away.

"Then it is settled!" said Hondo as he put an arm around the kid, "Now about your payment…"

"I'll take my cut in power generators, three of them," he replied.

Hondo's brow creased, "Make it two and you have a deal."

The kid looked thoughtful for a second, "How about I take two, and we split the profit of the third one down the middle."

"Ha! You have yourself a deal my young friend!" Hondo laughed, "Now this is good business! You remind me of a great captain. Me! Haha!"

While Hondo was distracted with his delusions of grandeur, the kid quickly slipped the droid controller on Hondo's belt off when he thought no one would notice. Hondo certainly didn't notice, but Julian sure did.

 _Very interesting_ , he thought.

Though he could have easily gotten the controller back, Julian let the kid think he had it.

The boy clearly did not trust them, despite seemingly doing so earlier, and was leaving himself an out.

 _Clever kid_ , Julian thought, as "Lando" slipped the droid controller to Chopper discreetly.

* * *

The four of them made their way down the ramp of the Broken Horn, crates in tow.

The Broken Horn was currently docked in a hangar on the planet of Nexus.

As soon as Ezra's feet the floor of the hangar, Hondo suddenly smacked his face.

"How could I be so foolish? I nearly forgot, Julian, could you please go take care of that, uh, _paperwork_ for Vizago?"

The armored man sighed and turned back into the ship, "At the first sign of trouble, call me immediately," he said as he departed.

"You worry too much my friend!" Hondo called after the departing Julian.

Ezra turned to face Hondo, "Paperwork? What paperwork?"

"Ah, nothing too important, I just don't want the Empire permanently coming after me for failing to file my new ship properly! Now that would be bad for business, constantly on the run!"

"Seeing as how we just got shot at by one of their ships, I didn't take you for the type to care about Imperial regulations," said Ezra.

Hondo put a hand to his chest, "Are you implying that I am a criminal?!"

"Yes," replied Ezra, smirking.

Hondo paused, looking thoughtful, "Well, I suppose there were a _couple_ things."

"Uh huh," Ezra said, still smirking with a raised eyebrow.

Hondo stopped, and broke out into laughter at Ezra's clear disbelief.

"My friend, you never disappoint! Come now, let's get these crates to the buyer."

Ezra nodded and followed him away from the Broken Horn, crates in tow.

* * *

The hallway ended soon after a few minutes of walking and a doorway stood at the end. Following Hondo with four of the crates and Chopper following with the fifth, Ezra walked through the doorway as it opened into another hangar.

Around the doorway were around fifteen heavily armed guards.

Ezra suddenly stopped with a jolt, in the center of the guards was a red blob.

 _Azmorigan!_

Ezra positioned his body behind Hondo, hopefully to hide from the obese gangster.

 _If he recognizes me, we're done for,_ Ezra thought with a feeling of dread. He turned around to tell Chopper to avoid him at all costs, but the little astromech had not followed.

The red mass that was Azmorigan spoke first, "You're not Vizago."

Hondo bowed, "Unfortunately, Vizago lost these power generators to me in a friendly game of Sabacc and now I am the new owner, Hondo Ohnaka. I am willing negotiate for their individual sale."

Azmorigan snickered, "Oh I'm afraid that won't be happening, _Hondo Ohnaka_."

The guards suddenly raised their blasters threateningly, and Azmorigan began to cackle.

"Take their weapons and tie them up!" he ordered.

Ezra began to sweat, they were so screwed.

They were completely outnumbered and cornered, if they tried to escape or fight back they would get blasted into dust.

 _Where is Chopper?_

* * *

Julian had just got done with "doing Vizago's paperwork," (which really meant stuffing Vizago's unconscious body into a supplies closet), when the doorway to their hangar bay opened and Chopper rolled in at a million miles an hour squealing with panic.

Julian looked at the text translated onto his helmet.

"Oh for the love of God," he groaned, running out of the hangar followed closely by the droid.

* * *

"You know, if you kill us and take the merchandise, no one will ever try to sell anything to you ever again," Hondo pointed out to the portly villain.

Azmorigan snorted, "You think I don't know about the bounty put on you by the Rang Clan? I'm going to collect on your bounty and keep the generators."

"Well, that is an impressive business plan I suppose," admitted Hondo.

"Of course it is! It's _my_ plan," the criminal just then noticed Ezra, "And who are you? You look awfully familiar."

 _Karabast_ , Ezra thought.

"Why of course you do, might I introduce, Lando Calrissian!" Hondo spoke, awfully cheery for the situation they were in.

Azmorigan looked confused, "Whaaat? Him? Noooo, he's not Calrissian!"

Hondo turned to Ezra, "You lied to me?"

Ezra cringed internally, not only was he going to die, he was going to die having been caught lying by the only friend he had in this situation.

"I _knew_ I liked you!"

Ezra looked up in surprise to see the Weequay giving him a wide grin.

Ezra returned the smile halfheartedly, how could Hondo be so cheery in this drastic situation?

Azmorigan ignored their interaction, "Now I know who you are! You were with that pesky group of people on Lothal with Calrissian!"

He began to giggle madly, "Hehe, I get to collect on the bounty, kill you, and keep my five crates and-," he paused to notice that there were only four crates, "Wait, where's the fifth crate?"

He turned to glare at Hondo, "You were supposed to bring me five!"

"Well the droid had the fifth crate," Hondo said, shrugging.

"Droid? What droid?" Azmorigan spat angrily.

* * *

Julian stood behind the doorway leading to the hangar where Hondo and the kid had gone to deliver the crates to this "Azmorigan." The plating on the door was thin, and using the sound amplifiers in his suit, he heard everything Azmorigan planned to do to his compatriots.

 _So the kid really was lying about who he was._

Julian shook his head, there were more pressing matters to attend too now.

"Ok, so here's what we are going to do," he began saying to Chopper, but the droid had seemingly disappeared while his attention was on Azmorigan.

Suddenly, the droid reappeared, squealing out a war cry as he pushed the trolley that had the fifth crate at top speed towards the door.

Thinking quickly Julian pressed a button on the side of the doorway, opening it as Chopper pushed the container through, with Julian following it.

Time slowed down as he surveyed the scene, the kid and Hondo were tied up with a large blob of a creature and fifteen heavily armored guards surrounding them.

The trolley that Chopper had launched suddenly hit its mark, immediately wiping out five of the guards quickly.

Julian noticed one of the guards who had not been hit by the fifth crate had several weapons attached to his belt.

As time was still slow, Julian raised his battle rifle and fired, hitting the guard in the shoulder, causing him to fall towards the two prisoners.

Turning quickly, he arced his rifle incredibly quickly and fired, causing the three bullets to arc in separate directions.

Each shot hit their mark and three guards went down with one squeeze of the trigger.

Turning to shoot more guards, Julian noted with satisfaction that Hondo and the kid had both grabbed their weapons, taken out two more guards, and were currently pinning down Azmorigan.

Three more of the guards were in his way, and Julian barreled through them like nothing.

The first guard went down with a timely punch to the face, the mask the man wore cracking from the blunt force, the second and third guard tried blasting him, but Julian twisted away from the shots and gunned them both down.

A fourth guard attempted to sneak up on him, but Julian whirled around, shooting his leg out and knocking the man's feet out from under him.

Catching his hands as he flopped forward, Julian threw the guard down, hitting the ground with a satisfying thud.

"I AM RICH!"

Julian suddenly whirled around to see Hondo being propelled towards the airlock on a trolley rapidly, clutching a box filled with credits.

Julian mouth opened in horror as he realized that the man would soon be tossed through the airlock.

Even if he ran at top speed, it still wouldn't be quick enough to save the man.

"I AM DEAD!" Hondo yelped in panic as his death became imminent.

Then out of nowhere, Hondo shot up and floated in the air, as if held up by some invisible force.

Julian's looked at Hondo, confused for a moment, then his mouth widened even more as he saw the kid raising both arms towards the floating Weequay, face contorted in concentration.

Julian continued to gape at the kid, astonishment concealed b y his helmet, did this guy have telekinesis?

The boy lowered his arms and Hondo dropped from his invisible grip.

Julian then noticed that Azmorigan had entered his ship, followed in hot pursuit by Chopper, who had somehow acquired two blasters and was firing wildly into the air.

 _What a strange day_.

The ship immediately took off, nearing hitting Hondo as it took off in its haste.

"Well, that was easy! Haha!" exclaimed Hondo.

* * *

As the group coalesced around the crates, Hondo spoke up again.

"My young friend, I may not know your name, but I know what you are," he pointed his finger at the kid, " _You_ are a _Jedi_!"

The boy suddenly looked panicked as Julian searched his memory of what a Jedi might be.

"The Jedi were described as a group of people who wielded the light side of the force, the Empire hunted them down ruthlessly after the fall of the Republic," Lincoln whispered in his ear.

Julian sighed, "I swear, I always forget you're there, you take too much after Heidi," he said, muting his voice with his suit.

The AI simply chuckled in response.

Seeing the boys panicked expression, Hondo quickly reassured him, "Don't worry my friend, I'm an old Jedi sympathizer. In fact, one of my best friends was a Jedi, or at least I think he was."

The boy scratched the back of his neck, "Well, I'm not really a Jedi yet," he said shyly.

Hondo seized the opportunity, "Then why not be a pirate Jedi?"

The boy shook his head, "Sorry Hondo, but I've already got a crew."

"Then we best get you back to them, eh?" said Hondo, "Now, tell us, what is your name? Your _real_ name."

The kid hesitated for a moment, then spoke.

"My name's Ezra, Ezra Bridger."

* * *

 _A/N: Sorry about the wait on this one, I just lost all inspiration to write for a few days. Recreating entire episodes with only a few details changed is not my favorite thing. Still, thanks for all the love and support! Feel free to provide feedback._


	11. Findings and Frontiers

"Connection has been established sir," the ensign called out.

"I copy, transmit data dump," Admiral Runion said in reply.

It had been a few days since one of their probes had been found by a Covenant Separatist search party, and cloaked signal boosters had been set up in the dead space between their galaxy and the one that they were currently in. UNSC high command had been ecstatic to hear that his fleet had survived the supernova blast, and had requested a full report of what had happened.

The report of the battle around the nebula had been submitted with the combat logs, and now Runion was preparing to send them all the info they had discovered in this galaxy.

"Data has been transmitted Admiral," the ensign.

Runion leaned on the railing in the bridge of the Architect, when the UNSC received the info that he had sent, he fully expected all hell to break loose.

Now all he had to do was wait until the inevitable call came.

* * *

After the brief and deadly firefight in the hangar, Julian found himself alone in one of the side rooms on board the Broken Horn. The boy, Ezra, and Hondo were in the cockpit preparing for flight, and the droid, Chopper, was shut off and recharging.

Ezra Bridger.

"Lincoln?" Julian said aloud.

Said AI appeared before the Spartan in a whirl of digitized holo matter.

"Need something?" the AI inquired.

Julian gave an affirmative head nod, "Yes, search our archives for Ezra Bridger, I want to find more about our little Jedi friend."

Lincoln flashed, searching the database they had been provided by ONI and other Imperial records taken during Operation Moving Shadows.

"Nothing, the name isn't registered anywhere, that might be on purpose," the AI spoke.

Julian brushed his chin with his hand, "The data we have could also be outdated," Julian waved his hand, "Try facial recognition."

Lincoln flashed as his facial recognition technology mingled with the Imperial database.

"I do believe I've found something," the AI stated.

Julian watched as what looked like a profile appeared.

It seemed to be an Imperial transcript of sorts, for an academy. In the center of the document was a photo of Ezra, with the words "Dev Morgan" underneath.

Julian skimmed over the document, looking at the text near the bottom.

 _Status: Rebel Spy at large_.

Julian jolted up suddenly, his mind racing to conclusions.

This kid was one of the rebels! Should have seen it coming with him supposedly being a Jedi.

"He must have been on an undercover mission, judging by his status and fake name," he said aloud to Lincoln.

Lincoln flashed again, "I found one last thing for you, an audio log that was kept in the Imperial database to study Rebel propaganda."

"Play it Lincoln," Julian requested.

A hissing noise sounded and a young, hopeful, familiar voice spoke.

" _We have been called criminals, but we are not."_

" _We are rebels."_

" _Fighting for the people, fighting for you."_

" _I'm not that old, but I remember a time where things were better on Lothal."_

" _Maybe not great, but never like this."_

" _See what the Empire has done your lives, your family and your freedom? It's only going to get worse unless we stand up and fight back!"_

" _It won't be easy, there will be loss and sacrifice, but we can't just back down because we are afraid."_

" _That's when we need to stand the tallest."_

" _That's what my parents taught me."_

" _That's what my new family helped me remember."_

" _Stand up together! Because that's when we're strongest."_

" _As one!"_

The voice faltered out into static and Lincoln reappeared.

The AI gave a chuckle, "This young one reminds me of me."

Julian gave a solemn nod, "He's the key to our mission then, if he is a rebel, then chances are he has a connection to a rebel cell."

"I will send what we have learned back to the Architect, perhaps they have made contact again with our UNSC friends."

Julian simply nodded his confirmation when his motion tracker went off.

He stood up quickly, "One of them is coming back."

* * *

Ezra walked down the hallway to let Julian know that the ship was about to take off.

Truth be told, he could have just commed the tall armored man, but Ezra had an ulterior motive in seeking out Julian.

Ezra hadn't really noticed it before hand, seeing as how they were busy getting shot at, but the green armored man was incredibly weak in the force.

 _Astonishingly_ so, as a matter of fact.

Kanan was fond of telling him that the force flowed through every living thing in the galaxy, but for Julian the force literally _flowed_ through him.

Ezra's memory immediately brought up a teasing reprimand from Hera after he had been caught not paying attention at a debriefing, _in one ear, out the other_.

The statement sort of fit Julian, it was as if the force wasn't naturally a part of him and had instead forced its way into him. He barely had a force signature, and unless Ezra concentrated hard, he was completely invisible in the force.

Ezra also had a feeling that the man had something to do with the disturbance that had been bugging him for quite some time, judging by the strange feeling he got when they had first met.

Another thing as well, Hondo had said earlier that the man was rebellious and probably would have joined up with the rebels if not for him.

To say Ezra was curious was an understatement. And he had quite a few questions to ask Julian.

If he could even find the guy in the first place.

He palmed a random door open and was surprised to see that the man was in the room.

The massive armored figure stood up and faced him.

Ezra felt himself shrink back a little, this guy made Zeb look short!

"Need something?" his filtered voice inquired neutrally.

"I just wanted to let you know that we're just taking off now," Ezra stated.

Julian nodded, then tilted his head quizzically, "You could have just commed me and told me that, why did you come here?"

"I just wanted to ask you a couple questions," he said cautiously. Ezra knew he couldn't rely on the force for this interaction, and trying to read his emotion was extra hard while he was wearing that helmet. He could only go off vocal inflections for now.

The man sat back down, "Sure kid, shoot away."

"Look, I'm sorry for bothering you…" Ezra started to say, when realization dawned on him.

"Wait, what?" he asked, surprised that the guy didn't just tell him to get lost.

The man shrugged, "So long as I get to ask a few questions myself, Jedi."

"Uh, right, yeah," Ezra responded, he should have guessed that the guy was probably curious about his Jedi skills.

The ship suddenly lurched as it entered hyperspace. And Ezra fell silent.

The armored man tilted his head after a moment and asked, "Well?" a hint of amusement in his voice.

Ezra flushed a little, and blurted, "Hondo said you would be in the rebellion if it wasn't for him picking you up."

"And why would you care about something like that?" Julian responded.

"Hey, the deal was you would answer the questions," Ezra said, getting a little bolder.

Julian gave a laugh, "You're pretty spunky, kid." His laugh turned to a sigh and he spoke again.

"I was born in the far reaches of the outer rim on a remote colony. When the Republic fell the world didn't align with the Empire and the Empire didn't take too kindly to our planets little rebellion."

"So, what did they do?" Ezra asked, now intrigued.

Julian looked at Ezra, his helmet unreadable, "They burnt the colony to the ground, very few survivors. The population was small enough as it was, so keeping the story covered up was easy. I was one of the lucky few to have escaped. Let's just say I'm not a fan of the Empire."

Ezra slumped his shoulders sadly, it seemed the Empire took something from everyone.

"The Empire took my parents away from me when I was young," Ezra said sadly, "That's why I was interested Y'know? The people who have been wronged by the Empire really need to stick together."

"Because that's when were strongest," the man said.

Suddenly, Julian reached up and pulled his helmet off.

"As one," he finished.

Ezra gaped at the youngish looking man in front of him, "Wait, you know that?"

The man nodded, his shortish hair swaying a little, "I knew from the second I heard your voice it was you, I just didn't know you were a Jedi, you're quite the inspiration."

Ezra shrugged nonchalantly, "Not many do and thanks for that."

Ezra hesitated again and spoke once more, "Would you be interested in joining the rebellion? I saw you fight back in that hangar, we could use someone with your skills."

Before he could answer, Ezra's comm beeped and Hondo's voice filtered through.

" _Ezra, I need you up to the cockpit of this bucket of junk, the hyperdrive is acting strange!"_

"I'm coming Hondo!" Ezra answered in a hurry.

He turned to exit and then looked back at Julian.

The man gave an amused grin, "Better get going, leaving Hondo alone to fix something is a bad idea."

Ezra nodded and was about to leave when Julian spoke one last time.

"And as for your question, I'll think about it," he said, looking deep in thought.

Ezra gave a mock salute to him and ran out the door.

* * *

Lincoln reappeared beside Julian the second Ezra left through the door.

"You are a pretty good liar."

Julian shrugged, "It's not technically a lie, just replace Empire with Covenant and me with my father and its perfectly truthful."

Lincoln put a hand on his bearded chin, "Why are you getting attached to this kid? I quite doubt he is the leader of the cell."

"Because, I think he could be a key in stopping this Empire before they realize our existence, that transmission of his no doubt inspired countless people."

"And yet, why him specifically?" the AI inquired again.

Julian raised an eyebrow at the floating Lincoln again, "You know the answer to that question already."

Lincoln smiled, "Indeed I do old friend, tell me anyways."

"In our few weeks of travelling this galaxy with Hondo we've seen all sorts of people. All of them had different motivations, desires, personalities, and such. And yet they all lack one thing that I see in this kid."

"And what might that be, old friend?"

Julian put his helmet on.

"Hope."

* * *

 _A/N: Talk about Cliche! I love that kinda stuff though, so I decided to keep it in. Sorry about the wait on this one, procrastination is awful._

 _I feel the need to respond to some reviews, as for questions regarding certain characters appearing and different elements of the Star Wars Universe and Halo Universe interacting I really can't tell you. Mainly because I have no idea how this story is going to go. Basically all I know are interconnected plot lines. One thing I do know for sure is how the events on Malachor are going to go down and how the story is going to "end" so we'll see what happens._

 _Thanks for your patience and support, nearly 7000 views!_


	12. The Evil That Men Do

When Ezra got back to the cockpit, he quickly and quite easily got the sparking hyperdrive back under control. It wasn't a hard fix, though he doubted that Hondo would have be able to do it. He had learned how to from Hera, after a tangle with an interdictor had damaged the Ghost's hyperdrive.

 _Hera's going to kill me when I get back._

Ezra sighed, he had been told to just clean the Phantom, not take it out on a joy ride and pick a fight with Azmorigan.

Still, he did manage to get some power generators for Ashoka, and he did discover the anomaly that was Julian, perhaps that would alleviate what scolding he would doubtlessly be receiving.

The ship finally pulled out of hyperspace above Garel.

Ezra suddenly bolted up and gasped in horror.

Above the planet were two Star Destroyers.

* * *

"I just thought it would be bigger, y'know?" Zeb said sheepishly.

Kanan sighed, putting his hand to his forehead, as Hera smirked.

The group was walking down one of the cities endless alleyways on their way back to the Ghost. The Imperials generally tended to ignore the alleys and only patrolled the roads and streets, something that would come in handy to avoid Imperial entanglements.

"Zeb, it may be small, but the things it can do are phenomenal," he finally responded.

"I know, but all the ones we've encountered in the past are so much bigger!" Zeb protested.

Sabine groaned, "Can you two please stop?"

Kanan ignored her, "It's not a matter of how big or small it is, it's how you use it,"

"Alright that's it, I'm out of here," Sabine said, bolting ahead to the hangar where the Ghost was located.

Kanan and Zeb looked at each, "What's gotten into her?" asked Kanan.

Hera snickered, "Oh, nothing dear."

Kanan shook his head, exasperated, "Zeb, this little Kyber crystal could have been used for evil by the Empire, quite easily as a matter of fact."

"Alright, alright, I get the picture," said Zeb, throwing his arms up.

While Kanan knew he was right, he still had to agree with Zeb just a little, all the Kyber shipments in the past had been much larger, with gigantic green crystals. Kanan had no idea what they were for, but whatever it was being used for couldn't be good.

The fight for the little crystal had been quick and easy, so it apparent that the crystal wasn't as important as they had originally hoped.

 _Fulcrum can't be one hundred percent right every time,_ he thought.

To add on to the disappointment, they had not managed to find a single person willing to sell them a power generator. Not one! In the entire city!

Still, at least they had avoided any Imperial entanglements.

"Uh guys?" Sabine called out as the group approached the hangar.

"The Phantom, Chopper, and Ezra are all gone."

The group jolted up and ran to confirm Sabines declaration.

Sure enough, the Phantom was missing, and Ezra and Chopper were nowhere to be found.

"Karabast," Zeb growled.

"Ezra must have taken the Phantom and Chopper, for what reason I have no idea," Sabine said.

"That kid's gonna get himself killed," Zeb exclaimed.

"I'm worried about him," said Sabine softly.

Zeb raised an eyebrow, "Tell me you're not developing a sweet spot for the kid?"

Sabine glowered at Zeb, "He left without telling us Zeb! And don't tell me you're not worried about him too!" she deflected, Kanan didn't miss the soft tint of pink on her cheeks.

Zeb rubbed the back of his neck, "I don't know what I'm gonna do when we find him, hug him or strangle him!"

"Alright that's enough of that, we need to find him before the Imperials do," Hera interjected.

"Or before they find us," Ashoka pointed out.

Kanan nodded, "Sabine, go check our flight logs to see if we can find where the Phantom went, Hera, prep the Ghost for flight, we might need to make a quick escape, I'll see if I can sense him through our bond."

"Me and Rex can keep a look out for him," Ashoka said.

The crew members ran off to start their tasks, leaving Kanan alone on the ramp of the Ghost.

 _What else could go wrong today?_

His question was answered by a disturbance in the force, as several Imperial ships suddenly appeared in the sky.

 _Oh, that_ , he thought.

* * *

 _"_ _This is the Imperial Star Destroyer_ _Resolve to the Freighter Broken Horn, stand down and prepare to be boarded for questioning on your prior intrusion of Imperial space."_

Julian entered the bridge as the Imperial stopped his monologue.

Assessing the situation quickly the Spartan saw two Imperial Star Destroyers, one directly "above" the other directly in front of them.

Before Hondo or Ezra could protest, Julian touched the button on the comm to respond.

"This is the Broken Horn, very well, we will comply, we are unarmed and will not resist."

 _"_ _A wise decision, maneuver your ship towards our hangar or you will be shot down,"_ the Imperial responded before signing out.

Hondo and Ezra looked at Julian like he was insane.

"What are doing?" exclaimed Ezra, as the tell-tale clamp of a tractor beam ensnared them.

"Saving our skins, I have a plan."

"And what might that be exactly?" Hondo enquired.

Julian turned to Ezra, "You said your crew was down there, yes?"

Ezra frowned, "Yeah. Why?"

"How good are they at getting out of tight situations?"

"Very good," responded Ezra, a hint of pride in his voice.

"We're gonna need their help, after what we pull. So, here's the plan, Hondo, you take Ezra's ship and Chopper with all our power generators while I will take Ezra with me in one of the escape pods. Once we get close to the hangar, I'm going to angle the ship down into the control tower of the Star Destroyer, disabling it and then we'll escape in the chaos."

Ezra put his hands on his hips, "Ok, good plan, but why is Hondo taking my ship?"

"Because he's a better pilot then you, as your droid has told me."

Ezra looked at Chopper exasperated, "Chopper!"

The droid gave an indignant beep in return to defend himself.

"Ok, ok, fine! What do we do when we get back down to the planet?" Ezra intoned.

"We are going to separate in the confusion, we will land somewhere on the outskirts of the city, it'll give us more time to prepare against any local security forces. Hondo will find your crew, and Chopper will tell them what our situation is, from there we'll transmit our coordinates and Ezra's crew will pick us up and get us off this rock."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Hondo said.

"We'll do it, not like there are any better options anyways," Ezra agreed.

Chopper made a beep of protest.

Ezra turned on the droid, "Your opinion is irrelevant."

"Then that settles it," Julian interjected, cutting off the potential argument, "Let's move those power generators."

* * *

"Captain, the Broken Horn is now directly below our main hangar bay," an Imperial ensign called out from below.

The Imperial Captains brow furrowed, "Excellent, get our ship anchors ready, I don't want it going anywhere. We could have potential rebels, so tell our extraction teams to be careful."

"Sir, somethings happening," another ensign called out.

"What is it?"

"The ship isn't moving…" the ensign began to say, but soon his face turned to one of panic, "Wait, yes they are! They've angled themselves down towards the bridge of the _Iridescent_!"

The Captain's face paled, "Tell them to angle shields towards their bridge."

"Sir, it's too late!"

The Captain could only watch in horror as the Broken Horn plunged into the bridge of the Star Destroyer.

The ship broke through the Destroyers bridge shields at full speed like a battering ram, and slipped into the hull.

The bridge simply exploded as the freighter disappeared into it.

But the carnage wasn't done.

The ensuing flames that erupted inside the warship traveled quickly, and soon they hit a fuel line, causing the engines on the back of the ship to explode as well.

The there was a moment of silence as the aflame ship reeled from the hits.

Then the reactor overloaded and the whole Star Destroyer erupted into one last massive ball of fire.

Unnoticed was the Phantom, as it slipped away towards the planet. The escape pod however, did not receive such a fate.

"Sir, before the ship crashed it launched an escape pod," another ensign said, shock written on his face.

The Captain nodded, regaining his composure, "Track where they are landing and send some squads to meet them immediately, I would like them alive if possible, but do not hesitate to execute them if the need arises."

* * *

Julian stepped out of the smoldering ruins of the escape pod.

His plan had worked perfectly it had seemed, he had already transmitted his coordinates to Hondo and Chopper, and now all they had to do was await pickup.

"There were a lot of people on that ship."

Julian was brought out of his thoughts and turned around to face his companion.

Ezra was sitting on a rock near the crash site on his face, a sad look on his face.

"What do you mean, kid?" Julian enquired.

Ezra looked up at him sadly, "There were so many people who just died, they didn't even stand a chance. My master Kanan taught me that mercy is the Jedi way, and we didn't even give them a chance."

Julian looked at him and tried his best to answer him, "Kid, you know what happens to Jedi out here right?"

Ezra nodded slowly, not following.

"They kill you for being who you are, they kill you for doing something that comes naturally to you, and they do it without a second thought. If they had captured us, they would have tortured you, and once they got what they wanted from you, they would have killed you. Without thinking you're just a kid, or that you're just trying to help others. Those people are the people who enable all the suffering in this galaxy," he put his hand on his shoulder, "You can't feel bad when the evil that men do comes back to bite them."

Ezra looked conflicted, his good at heart nature not wanting to accept it.

"Kid, war is hell," he said.

Something clicked in Ezra's mind.

He nodded, "I understand, but I just wish there was another way sometimes."

"I've been in enough battles to know that sometimes there isn't," Julian said.

A low whine in the air caught Julian's and Ezra's attention.

A squad of TIE fighters were descending along with some troop transports, directly towards them.

Julian removed his assault rifle from his back as Ezra activated his lightsaber.

"And it seems as if we're going to have to fight another one," Julian said, as the TIEs opened fire on their position.

* * *

Kanan was brought out of his meditation by yelling.

"The Phantoms back!" he heard Rex shout.

Kanan sighed in relief, his attempts to get his Padawan's bond with him open had all, but failed for the moment. Trying to send a message through it required the active participation of both Padawan and Master, and Ezra was clearly distracted by something.

He jogged out to the main hold and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.

The crew of the Ghost was assembled in front of the ladder for the Phantom.

Opposite of them was Chopper and a Weequay that Kanan did not recognize.

"Who are you and where is Ezra?" Kanan heard Zeb ask in a threatening manner.

Instead of cowering though, the Weequay just laughed.

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I am Hondo Ohnaka! And as for your friend, he is in grave danger."

He moved to adjust his triangular shaped helmet.

"So, if you wish to save him, I suggest you listen to me very carefully."

* * *

 _A/N: I tried something a little different with Julian and Ezra's interaction near the end of the chapter. It was never really focused on how the horrors of fighting might affect the Ghost crew, especially someone like Ezra, who's never seen it before. Tell me if you think I did good._

 _I also you enjoyed Kanan and Zebs unintentional innuendos. Poor Sabine!_

 _This next chapter will be the final chapter for act one, and its gonna be a doozy, it'll pretty much set up the rest of the story from this point forward._


	13. Runion and Reunion

Runion walked down one of the many hallways of the Architect at a brisk pace.

Passing several saluting soldiers, he gave them the customary salute in return as he turned to his right down the corridor.

His destination: the ship's large, makeshift conference room.

* * *

Julian dodged an angry red bolt as it sizzled near where his head had been milliseconds beforehand.

Spotting the offending stormtrooper, Julian aimed his rifle in the Imperial's direction.

The reticule on his HUD turned a red color as he set his sights on the squad that was blasting at his position.

The hardened soldier pulled the trigger on his assault rifle, and a hail of glowing orange bolts flew out of the muzzle on the gun.

After Requiem, the UNSC had taken a keen interest in hard-light technology, unlike conventional laser or plasma weaponry, hard light rounds were projectile based, not too much unlike the UNSC's bullet based weaponry. After extensive testing, the UNSC managed to make their own version of the hard-light round, one that was compatible with their current weaponry, but still deadly enough to take down foes with ease.

The effectiveness of the technology was quickly proven as the shots hit their mark and the stormtrooper went down hard.

The trooper's partners quickly reacted and threw a hailstorm of lasers at him.

Before the shots could hit their mark, Ezra stepped up and effortlessly blocked the shots with his blazing blue blade.

Julian had been quick to learn of how impressive the abilities of the Jedi were, even one as young as Ezra, and seizing the moment that Ezra provided with his distraction, Julian fired more bursts and downed more Stormtroopers.

* * *

Runion spotted his target as he took a left turn past a squad of marines.

Two Spartan Vs stood at attention in front of the door to the conference chamber, holding perfectly still at the ready with SAWs at the ready.

The two elite soldiers both directed their gazes towards the approaching admiral and chorused, "Sir!" as they saluted in unison.

Runion waved off the soldiers with a wave of his hand, "At ease men."

* * *

Time slowed down as Julian began his charge towards the Imperial position.

Their cover had been taken out by a strafing run from a TIE fighter as it flew overhead. Out in the open, Julian made sure to cover Ezra's much smaller frame with his armored suit.

"I can cover myself you know!" Ezra yelled at Julian as they ran across the open fire, dodging and blocking blaster fire from the Stormtrooper squad firing at them.

"I'm not taking any chances with you kid! Besides, I can take more punishment than you can!"

To emphasize his point, a shot hit the armored man in the shoulder, however, instead of downing him, a golden hue erupted from the armor as his suit's personal shielding shrugged off the shot with ease.

Ezra's eyes widened a little while at the display, but his amazement was short lived as they finally got to the tall rock face the squad of Stormtroopers were using as cover.

"Now what do we do?" hissed Ezra as the Imperial's fire stopped momentarily.

Julian put his gun on his back and pulled out his energy sword and an accompanying grenade.

"Stay close," he ordered.

Ezra was about to protest, when the armored man activated the sword, twin blades of thin white plasma igniting from the side of the hilt, fumes from the sword slowly trailing upwards.

Ezra's mouth gaped in surprise at the unique weapon, and once again his amazement was cut off by Julian as he primed the grenade and tossed it over the rock.

"Now!" he yelled, as a loud bang sounded off and several yells of pain sounded off through the air.

Julian vaulted over the top of the rock face, followed closely by Ezra as the two allies confronted the disorganized Imperials, the fighting turning to hand to hand very quickly.

Feeling the force all around him, Ezra slashed with blade in wide arcs, cutting several blasters in half as Julian plunged his sword into a pauldron donned Stormtrooper.

After a few more slashes and a force push, the rest of the Imperials were down for the count.

The lull in combat provided the two a chance to recuperate for a moment, but the moment didn't last as a tell-tale whine screeched from the sky.

"They're back!" Ezra yelped in panic.

The two watched as the TIE fighters, now accompanied by TIE bombers flew towards their position at breakneck speed, preparing to rain death down upon the rebels.

* * *

"Is everyone assembled and ready?" Runion inquired to the Spartans on guard.

The armored giant of a man nodded, "Everyone is ready sir, we saw them in personally."

Runion gave a tight smile to the soldiers, "Alright, open up then."

The soldier pressed a button on the console behind him and the door opened, the room revealed was in total darkness.

Runion stepped forward into darkness and into the meeting that would decide the fate and destiny of these two galaxies.

* * *

Suddenly, just as the TIE's were about to unleash a swift demise to Ezra and Julian, several accurate shots of red blaster fire ripped the unshielded ships into shreds, a new ship joining the fray in the sky.

The ship was a freighter from what Julian could tell, just who's ship it was, Julian didn't know, but the same couldn't be said for Ezra.

"It's them, it's the Ghost!" he said excitedly, a wide grin plastered on his face, looking for all the world like a kid in a candy store.

The ship blasted the remaining TIE's into oblivion and turned towards them to pick them up.

However, the Ghost soon found itself under intense fire from newly arrived troop transports and several Imperial walkers. Under fire, the ship quickly blasted away from the ground as it was easily outgunned by the Imperial reinforcements.

Julian comm crackled to life, and a familiar pirate's voice crackled through the speaker.

" _-ulian? Can you hear me?!"_ Hondo's voice filtered through, distorted by the battle raging around them.

Julian quickly ducked below cover as the troop transports opened up on them, "Hondo, we're here! Get us the hell out of here!"

" _Ah! Julian! It's so good to hear your voice again! However, a rescue will not be possible with those walkers!"_

Julian snuck a peek over the edge of his cover to see what the Imperials were up to, he saw almost eight squads of troops and six walkers, alongside ten transports. Julian could take them, but as for Ezra, the kid was visibly sagging, tired out from nearly thirty minutes of nonstop fighting. And the troopers just kept coming, more and more of them at a time, Julian doubted he himself would last much longer than Ezra.

Ezra looked at him wearily, "What are we gonna do?"

Julian paused for a second, the ship couldn't come too close, or it would get shot out of the sky, and they couldn't very well run away from the enemy armor, seeing as how they would just get blasted into pieces as well.

Julian then noticed a small blinking indicator light flashing on his HUD, right near the list of his armor abilities, Lincoln being the perpetrator of the beacon.

The light was flashing next to one armor ability specifically.

 _Speed enhancement!_

"Thanks Lincoln," he whispered to his AI.

Now how to use this thing.

Bringing his hand up to his comm again he gave quick instructions to Hondo, "Hondo tell whoever is flying that ship to fly south with their landing ramp open."

" _Ah, why would we do that now?"_

"Just do it!" he hissed at the pirate.

The link cut out and sure enough the friendly freighter flipped around and lowered its ramp, flying away from the battle and the Imperial walkers.

"Wait where are they going?" Ezra began to question, but his curious expression turned to one of shock as Julian suddenly picked him up and put him under his arm.

"Hey what are you doing-WHOA!" Ezra yelped as Julian suddenly took off at incredible speeds.

Spartans, with their intensive training and augmentations, could already run at incredibly high speeds compared to the average human, but the speed enhancement unit, invented and tested by a defunct UNSC program called Freelancer, aimed to give even average humans incredible speed, and now it was a common enhancement amongst Spartans.

A purple hue appearing near his legs as he picked up speed, Julian sped off at a breakneck pace towards the south flying freighter, followed closely by the fast-moving Imperial transports.

Dodging and weaving through the bolts, Julian quickly caught up to the ship, standing on the ramp was the familiar face of Hondo, a man with a ponytail, and a large purple creature.

"Jump!" the man with the pony tail yelled at him.

Julian complied and lept off the ground towards the ramp, a strange force seeming to help guide him towards the waiting landing area.

Finally hitting the ground of the ramp, he was helped to his feet by the purple creature and stepped forward as the ramp closed and the ship blasted off.

* * *

After a few moments, the ship lurched again, a tell-tale sign of a hyperspace jump.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Julian began to relax when he remembered he was still holding Ezra under his arm like a log.

"Hey, uh, could you maybe put me down please?" Ezra requested to Julian.

"I think he's fine right where he is," the man with the ponytail said with a knowing smirk.

Ezra stopped fidgeting and looked up at him with a sheepish grimace, "I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

The man's smirk did not fade, "Oh yeah, big time, my young Padawan."

"You must be Ezra's crew then," Julian more so stated than asked, "Was that you helping out with that jump?" he inquired.

He nodded, "Yes. Will that be a problem?" he challenged the armored soldier, hardening his stance and increasing the tension in the air as his companions put their hands on their weapons.

"Buddy, if you're worried about us turning you in, you've got nothing to worry about, the Imperials probably hate me as much as they hate you," Julian dismissed his concerns.

The man relaxed his stance a little and the tension dissipated, "Very well, I suppose introductions are in order then," he pointed to the large purple creature first who stood at eye level with Julian, "This is Zeb," he turned again to point at an older man with a greying beard and an orange humanoid creature, "This is Rex and Ahsoka, Hera is our pilot up front and Sabine was manning our turret," the man paused.

"And I'm Kanan."

Julian reached out and took his outstretched hand and shook it, "I'm Julian, it's a pleasure to meet you."

After the two men were done shaking hands, a door opened to Julian's right, and a green humanoid female walked through, the second she saw Ezra, her eyes widened with relief and she rushed forward to grasp his shoulders and examine him.

"Ezra, are you ok? Are you hurt anywhere? What happened?" she asked, sounding like a doting mother.

"Hera, I'm ok, really, I promise," Ezra protested, sounding for all the world like a teenager embarrassed by his mother.

"I don't know Hera, I think he might've knocked a few screws loose with that jump," Zeb snickered.

Ezra shot Zeb a murderous glance as Hera released his shoulders.

"Sooo, how did your guy's mission go?" Ezra asked, curious.

Kanan frowned a little, "Smooth enough I suppose, the crystal was a little underwhelming."

"We didn't find any generators either," the older man, Rex, pointed out.

Kanan shot him a look, "Yeah, that as well."

"So, where were you exactly?" he redirected back to Ezra.

The boy was about to speak, but he was interrupted by a certain Weequay pirate, "I believe I can be of assistance for the telling of this tale. Ezra, Julian, how about you two grab my six crates from your ship and bring it down here."

Ezra's eyes lit up, "All six?!"

"All six," Hondo finished with a knowing smile.

"Come on let's go," the boy gestured to Julian and dashed out of the cargo hold.

"Wait, crates, what crates?" Kanan pressed Hondo.

Hondo shook his finger, "Ah ah ah. Patience my friend, and let old Hondo tell you of a grand adventure…"

* * *

Using the force to bring crates down the tube that connected the Ghost to the Phantom, Ezra quickly brought the six crates down to their ground level.

"Six power crates huh?"

Julian and Ezra both turned to see an armored girl, not much older than Ezra, leaning up against the doorway.

"Oh, hey Sabine!" said Ezra excitedly, "Didn't see you before."

"While six crates are a good haul, don't ever do that again please," she stated, ignoring his earlier statements.

Ezra's eyebrows raised and a mischievous grin came to his face, "What the matter Sabine, you didn't miss me that much did you?"

Sabine's facial expression hardened, "Ezra, I'm being serious!"

Ezra's grin faltered and he rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Sorry, I shoulda realized."

"You've became pretty capable in these months that we've known you Ezra, but you aren't invincible, and you had us really worried, when you left without saying anything," Sabine continued.

Ezra attempted a halfhearted grin, "You kinda sound Kanan."

Sabine's expression softened a little, "I kind of do, don't I," she turned her attention to the side of the door frame, eyes downcast, "It's just, we've all lost so much, and we've all gotten attached to you, even me, and I don't know we'd do if we lost you," she hesitated, "I don't know what I would do either," she mused, remembering all the harrowing escapes and downtime escapades they'd had up to that point.

Ezra's face at this point was beet red, and his eyes were wide as he looked at the girl who had all, but told him that he meant a lot to her.

Noticing the boy's expression, Sabine's shoulders slumped a little as she gave a soft chuckle, "Don't put too much thought into it kid."

"If it makes you feel any better, he wasn't in any danger," Julian spoke up for the first time.

Sabine shot the man a smile, "You must be Julian, thanks for the generators by the way."

He nodded at the teenager, "My pleasure."

"I'll go let the others know everything's ready."

And with that she left the room.

"Interesting individual," Julian observed.

He turned to Ezra seeing he was still looking at the place where Sabine had left, a look of longing on his face.

"Hey kid, Ezra! Snap out of it, I need help with these crates" he said, trying to get him out of his trance.

"What? Oh right! Uh, sorry," Ezra said sheepishly.

"Kid, you got it bad," Julian said, shaking his head.

Ezra refused to look at his armored companion, "Let's just get these crates loaded."

* * *

 _A/N: One more chapter and then Act One will be done._

 _I really liked Ezra and Sabine's interaction during the episode with Tseebo, and I wanted to do something similar with this, normally it seems Kanan is the one to tell Ezra he's appreciated and therefore I went for a different approach._

 _Only a month in and I'm at 30,000 words, Jeezus._

 _Please review!_


	14. The Stage is Set

After moving the six power generators down to the main hold of the Ghost, Julian and Ezra managed to catch the conversation that Hondo and the Ghost crew were having.

"And that is everything that happened!" Hondo said to a bewildered and disbelieving crew.

"Are you sure that all actually happened?" asked Kanan incredulously.

Hondo nodded vigorously, "Absolutely. Quite the enthralling tale, no?"

"What about the part with the rancor though?" Hera asked.

"You also left out what happened to the giant space slug," grunted Zeb.

"And what was that about a Wookie army?" inquired Rex.

Hondo waved his arms in mock annoyance, "OK! I may have taken some _liberty_ with some of the details."

"I can fill you guys in later about what happened," Ezra offered.

Kanan sighed.

"Yeah, I think that'll be a necessity," he said.

"Well, I do believe that is time for us to get going then," Hondo announced, "Because you have been so kind, I will leave you my six power generators, they are my gift to you!"

"And by that he means that he can't sell them to anyone anymore so he's dumping them on you," Julian clarified.

Hondo shrugged, "Well, after Azmorigan starts the rumor about his unfortunate, um, _incident_ with these crates, I doubt anyone will want them."

"Regardless of the circumstances that made you give them to us, it is still very much appreciated Hondo," Ahsoka spoke up with a grateful smile.

"It isn't the first time I've helped you out with a delivery, Ahsoka, remember those missile launchers I delivered so long ago?"

Ashoka chuckled, "Indeed I do, I suppose it's good to see you again Hondo."

"Likewise, from me! Even still we must be going, come on Julian!"

Hondo walked out the back of the Ghost, but Julian did not follow him out of the ship.

Hondo stopped and looked back at Julian, who had not followed him out of the ship, "Coming Julian?"

Julian stood firm, "I'm not coming."

Hondo, instead of looking surprised, just shot Julian a quick grin, "I suppose I should have seen this coming."

"Seen what coming?" asked Sabine.

"I want to join your rebellion," Julian stated simply.

The crew's eyes widened in surprise.

"Wait, you want to join our rebellion? Why?" asked Hera.

"I've always hated the Empire, and what they did to me," Julian looked at Ezra, "Let's just say I was inspired by one of your crew members."

Ezra shifted sheepishly, "You actually considered my offer?"

"Indeed, I did, I'm tired of hiding from the Empire and I'd like to offer my services to your rebellion," he shifted his gaze towards Kanan, "If you'll have me that is."

Kanan looked apprehensive, "Join this cell? So soon after we just met you?"

"Hey, I joined up with the crew pretty fast," pointed out Ezra.

"I saw him bash those bucket heads down there, we could use his kind of skills," said Zeb appreciatively.

"Ezra seems to trust him, and I don't think his trust is very easily displaced," offered Sabine.

Kanan seemed to waver as Hera approached him with a broad smile.

"What do you think Kanan?"

Kanan sighed at the look Hera gave him and relented.

"Alright, you can join, but if you're an Imperial spy, I'll have Zeb toss you out of the airlock."

"Fair enough," replied Julian.

"First rescuing us multiple times, and then stealing my crewmate?" Hondo laughed, "Young Ezra, you never fail to impress!"

"We'll keep in contact with you Hondo," said Julian, "Maybe you can get us some job opportunities."

"Indeed I will, indeed I will," said Hondo as he turned to leave.

"Wait!" Ezra exclaimed.

Hondo turned again.

"If you asked me before I met my crew to join you, I would have," he admitted truthfully.

Hondo let out a hearty laugh and shook his head, "Oh Ezra, you truly are a Jedi."

And with that, the old Pirate left the crew of the Ghost with their new companion, none of them knowing just what was about to happen.

* * *

Runion stepped into the large darkened room.

Inside the room was a large projection of various people and elites.

Assembled via hologram was the entire military hierarchy and all the members of the UN senate, each senator representing a star system. The Hegemon, and his staff were present as well.

Joining their human compatriots were representatives from the Covenant Separatists, including the old, wise Arbiter, who had led his people in open revolt against the Covenant hierarchs.

As Runion took a seat next to some of the other Admirals and Captains in his task force as Hegemon Brian Silva cleared his throat to gain the attention of those assembled.

"Now, we should have all been debriefed on what the topic of this meeting is going to be about, does anyone need any more information?" Silva said.

Silence reined in the darkened space.

Silva nodded.

"If this is so, I should have to remind you of the ramifications of this emergency meeting then."

He paused for a second and then continued.

"The fate of our galaxy and another is currently resting in our hands, today we shall decide what to do with it."

A holoprojection of the Empire and the territory it controlled in its own galaxy popped up.

"Polemarch Loukes, if you please."

Loukes gave his leader a nod and stood up.

"This so-called Empire is completely unaware of our presence and we suspect that it will take a very long time for them to even become aware of the fact that we exist."

He pointed towards a section of the galaxy map that had been provided by Runion and his team, "This area, known as the Unknown Regions in their galaxy is the closest to our own Milky Way. It has remained largely unexplored, and from what we can tell, has not been properly charted out."

"However, recently, the Empire has been ramping up exploration of these areas, conquering the few sovereign planets that exist in that region, for what reason we don't truly know now. We can predict, that it will more than likely take the Empire several more years until they can get close enough to our galaxy to detect us."

Hushed murmurs rang through the chamber as the members processed this information.

One senator stood up, "Why is that such a bad thing? Can we not talk to this Empire and work out the matter peacefully?"

"This brings me to my next point," stated Loukes, "This involves how the Empire operates."

A picture of Emperor Palpatine flashed on the screen.

"This is Emperor Palpatine, he is the supreme ruler of the Empire, his word is practically law in this galaxy and the guy has such complete control of his Empire that he makes Stalin look like an open, carefree man. He is clever, cunning, but most importantly of all, he is a complete control freak, everything he sees must be bent to his will."

"So what does that mean for us?" another Senator inquired.

Loukes looked at her gravely, "It means that when the Empire discovers us, Palpatine will view us as a threat to his order, and will attempt to destroy us."

The room broke out into outrage as the Elites and their human counterparts protested.

One elite councilor stood tall, "I would like to see that pale, wrinkled creature _try_ ," he sneered.

The Arbiter put his hand up to silence the room, "It pains me to point this out," he said in his gravelly voice, "But I have read the manifesto on the Empire's equipment and military capabilities, they vastly outnumber us, and have a far larger production and population base to wage war on us."

"If they attack us, we will more than likely not survive," said Loukes.

"So then what do we do?" growled one of the Elite council members.

Silva stepped up, "We go to war."

The room once more erupted into chaos.

"A technically unprovoked war of aggression?!" one Senator gasped.

"And against one who forces dwarf ours in size?" another inquired.

"Bah! No matter how many there are, they will all fall the same!" one Elite roared, gaining several approving yells from his compatriots, human and Elite alike.

"Quiet please!" Silva yelled above the noise as the clamor settled down.

The noise began to subside, as Runion put his hands on his chin, this meeting was going nowhere fast.

"Now I know that this is a sensitive, controversial sort of proposition, but we are currently backed into a corner here," Silva said, trying to keep the calm.

"If we stay put and do nothing, then the Empire will eventually find us and we will be forced to fight on our turf, which would devastate our colonies and worlds, on the other, if we fight, we may just have a chance to defeat them."

"And how might we defeat an enemy with a larger military and industrial production?" questioned another Senator.

"We have several key distinct advantages on our side," he acknowledged Runion with an arm wave, "Thanks to the efforts of Runion and his fleet, the Empire is very unaware of our presence."

Loukes turned back to the Senator, "We could very well use this element of surprise to our advantage."

"Another one of our advantages," he continued, "Is that our espionage capabilities are vastly superior to the Empires, our AIs are much more advanced due to our reverse engineering of Forerunner tech, allowing us to see the Empire's moves before they make them and other data as well."

"There is also one more very important element that you are missing," Runion spoke up.

As the attention in the room switched to the Admiral, Loukes looked at him quizzically.

"What might that be Admiral Runion," he asked.

Runion stood up to address the members more properly, "There is a growing rebel movement inside of the galaxy that we are currently taking advantage of, as a matter of fact, one of my top operatives is currently infiltrating one of the cells to grow it. From what our intelligence teams have been able to gather, most people of the galaxy either tolerate the Empire or downright hate it, the Empires vast military and resources are really the only thing keeping the common civilians in check."

"Fear of what might happen to them if they rebel," the Arbiter concluded.

Runion nodded, "Right, however if these existing rebel's cells are grown to larger sizes and are able to defeat the Empire in a couple pitched battles, well who knows how many would rally to fight the Empire. One of my operatives sent me an audio clip of a call to revolt on the planet of Lothal, our data teams estimated that rebel recruitment rates went up nearly three hundred percent."

"So, the people are just waiting for something strong to rally behind, predictable, but also very useful for us," the Arbiter stated.

"So, we weaken the Empire internally through instability and revolt, and then we strike?" Silva inquired,

"Something along those lines," Loukes confirmed.

"Then we had best do it fast, time is running out," one of the Strategos pointed out.

"Not so fast Silva," one of the Senators, from Harvest, interjected, "You know very well that you can't declare war without the Senates approval, and what will the common people think of a preemptive war?"

"I don't like this idea of a war any better then I'm sure you do Senator, but we have been backed into a corner, unless something drastic changes, war will be inevitable regardless of what happens today," Silva countered.

"While I don't disagree with any of what you have said, you won't receive my support without a proper plan do deal with these Imperials," a Senator from Earth declared.

Murmurs of agreement came up from the assembled group.

"We do already."

The Senators and military leaders turned to face Runion once again, curious looks in their eyes.

Silva chuckled, "My, but you are full of surprises today Admiral."

Runion gave a half smile in return and began to explain his plan, "While we have been stationed here in this galaxy, my Admirals and I have begun devising plans on how to knock out the Empire that also account for our lesser numbers."

Runion brought up the galaxy map once more, "As stated before we have three significant edges over the Empire; they don't know about us, our cyber technology is superior, and the Empire has an unwilling and rebellious populace. This plan utilizes all three elements."

Pointing to a section of the map that was lit up, a planet appeared on the holoprojection, "To control, censor, and suppress information, the Empire has several massive communication facilities located on planets around the galaxy for all galaxywide communications and such. While there are smaller communications towers for certain planets and star systems, these are the main ones. These facilities make sure that anything, be it long range communications to rebellious propaganda, is properly filtered. The downside to these facilities are that all of their metaphorical eggs are in one basket, the upside is that the main communication chains between military, planets, and others are heavily guarded and completely controlled by the Empire."

"So, we disrupt these communication centers and we have the potential to completely disorganize the Imperial's transmissions," Loukes said with a look of realization on his face.

Runion nodded, "Exactly, if we take down these centers, we'll be able to access their entire network and disrupt it to our will, there is however, one problem."

"And what might that Runion?" the Arbiter asked quizzically.

"The facilities themselves are heavily guarded, to an extreme actually, and to disrupt them, we have to do it from inside the facilities themselves, we can't do it from outside, the lines themselves are hardwired so that they can only be accessed from the interior of the facilities from a few main consoles."

"Without someone on the inside, getting those comms to work for us is quite literally physically impossible," Captain Armstead spoke up from his position next to Runion, "Believe me, we've tried, the place is pretty much impenetrable."

"Then why not launch a strike with our forces and take it?" the Senator from Earth asked.

"Then our presence would be known, the planet would just alert other planets of our presence and the Empire would be alerted to invasion. We would completely lose the element of surprise and our blitzkrieg would lose all of its steam immediately," Loukes connected the dots.

"Exactly," said Runion.

"So then how do we take down these communication centers?" asked Loukes.

Runion smiled, "Simple, we don't, the rebels already in this galaxy do."

The Arbiter laughed, "The rebels! Of course!"

"We will support these rebels, be it information, potential allies, etc. My Spartan operative will continue his efforts to unite the various rebel cells that already exist, and when the time is right, these rebels will strike one of these facilities. Once they break through and gain control of the main control, my operative will insert his AI into the main communications, basically giving him complete control of all galaxywide transmissions in the Empire. He'll transmit a message of rebellion galaxywide and then shut down Imperial communications. Then, with rebellions and riots breaking out and all communications off, we strike and utterly destroy them."

The room was silent as they all processed the plan.

"And if the rebels fail to take their objective?" Silva asked.

Runion looked at him grimly, "Then we attack all at one time, perhaps we can hope for a favorable peace conference, I don't know if we will get a better chance at this then with those rebels."

"So, we are relying totally on these rebels then," said one Senator glumly.

"Unfortunately, yes, we must do our best to prepare them," said Runion.

"And what if these rebels don't want to attack the facility?" the Senator asked.

"Oh, trust me, they'll jump at the chance," said Runion with a knowing smile.

"Then I say we put it to a vote," Silva said.

"We will defer to your motion, humans," the Arbiter stated.

The Senators all disappeared from the holoprojector.

* * *

Six hours later, it was over.

The Senate had voted to go to war, by nearly a three quarters majority.

The Senate looked on as Loukes presented Silva with a document.

"All that's left to do is get you to sign the declaration of war, verbal agreement isn't really enough for UNSC paperwork you know," Loukes said to Silva.

Silva gave a tight smile as he grabbed a pen and signed his name on the declaration of war.

"Well gentlemen that's it, Operation: Brave New World is a go, God help us all."

* * *

 **End of Act 1: Into the Great Unknown**

* * *

 _A/N: And that's a wrap! Thanks for all the love and support for this story._

 _I'd like to thank everyone for reviewing._

 _When I started this story, I made sure to go out of my way to find a different way to meld these two universes together, while of course I had to use the trope of forerunner tech to get them there (Because how else would the UNSC discover the Empire) I didn't just want the UNSC to waltz in and get directly involved, nor did I really want them completely uninvolved as well. So I set it up for Julian and the Ghost crew to take on the Empire with the impending showdown between the UNSC and Empire looming over their heads. Apparently people quite like it because I am now sitting at 10k views for a story in a generally dead crossover section, (one lovely reviewer called it a "breath of fresh air" thank you for that by the way)._

 _So yeah, expect Act 2 of this story, which will be called "Out of the Shadows" to be uploaded here in the future and other little projects I may start to make sure the creative juices can keep flowing._

 _Thanks all!_


	15. Portraits and Planets

**Beginning of Act II: Out of the Shadows**

* * *

The grey crate lifted lazily into the air, suspended by an invisible force.

Directly opposite the crate was Ezra, arms forward with his eyes closed and a look of concentration on his face.

Next to him sat his master, Kanan, who looked on as his Padawan tapped into his natural force sensitivity.

"Ezra, concentrate and lose yourself directly in the force, let it flow through you, don't try to bend it to your will," the older man commented.

Ezra grit his teeth, "I'm trying here!" he forced out.

"Do or do not, there is no try," Kanan pointed out, a smirk growing on his face.

The crate suddenly dropped, spilling its contents of unfinished grenades on the floor of the Ghost.

One of the harmless spheres rolled forward and hit an armored boot, a similarly armored glove descended and grabbed it.

Julian observed the ball for a second before turning his attention back to Master and Apprentice,

"You said that just to mess me up!" Ezra accused Kanan.

"I said it because it's true," Kanan said, failing to suppress the teasing tone in his voice.

Ezra crossed his arms, "You don't even know what that means," he pouted.

"It means you need to stop trying and start _doing_ , and right now that means you need to start trusting in the force and letting it guide you."

"I've been meaning to ask about that actually," Julian interjected into the conversation, startling the two, "Why can't you bend the force to your will?"

Kanan put a hand to his goatee, looking thoughtful, "I was taught that only dark siders can bend the force to their will, using powerful emotions like fear and anger, while light siders give in to the force, letting it guide them. The downside to the dark side is that it ends up consuming you, drives you completely mad. I remember hearing horror stories about Count Dooku during the war before I was a Padawan, the guy used to be a heroic Jedi and after he fell, he turned into a monster."

"Count Dooku?" Ezra questioned curiously.

Kanan's communicator suddenly went off and Hera's voice filtered through.

"I'm gonna need you boys in the cockpit here in the main hold here, we need to have a talk."

"Alright, we'll be there in a sec Hera," Kanan replied. He turned to Ezra and ruffled his hair, "Sorry kid, that might be a story for another time."

"We'll have to clean up this mess later," said Julian, as the three walked out of the room.

* * *

Entering the main hold, Ezra, Kanan, and Julian found the rest of the crew already assembled with holograms of Commander Sato and Ahsoka also present.

As soon as Hera noticed them she nodded to Sato and spoke, "Go ahead and begin Commander."

The hologram of Sato spoke, "I would like to keep this brief, for we have a lot of work ahead. The rebellion needs a base of operations, keeping our fleet out here in open space is quite useful for avoiding Imperials, but the amount of fuel required to keep our ships flying is becoming more and more unsustainable as our cell continues to grow."

"Didn't we have a sustainable source of fuel from the cell on Navitas?" asked Kanan.

"We used to," Zeb grunted.

"The Empire seized the refineries on Navitas and all of the rebel sympathizers had to either leave, or continue to work there in the hopes of being able to sabotage the facility, either way, aside from our raids, our supply has been cut off almost entirely," Hera explained.

"Do we have any locations in mind that might suite our needs?" Kanan asked the obvious.

"Well, we have two options for where we can set up a temporary firebase, we can either choose a deserted, off the radar planet with no population, or we can hide in plain sight and use what anti-Imperial sentiment the local populace might have against the Empire. Now as for individual planets we might use, that will be your job to figure out," stated Sato.

"We'll get right on it then," Kanan agreed.

"We should stick to place that already have a population, from what I understand the Empire's been increasing searches into unexplored and desolate places in search of rebel cells," Julian advised.

"Where did you receive that information?" Sato asked quizzically, an eyebrow raised.

Julian didn't even skip a beat, "Hondo commed me a little while ago from Florum to let me know that there were Imperial probes crawling all over the place. Florum has no military or material significance to the Empire, so the only reason I can assume the place had probes there was because they were looking for something, my best guess is rebel cells."

This of course was pure bull on Julian's part, Armstead's intelligence unit had sent him the info about Imperial probe presences, but the rebels were on a need to know basis when it came to Julian's real sources.

The crew seemed to accept his excuse and Ahsoka closed the conversation.

"Kanan, Ezra, you are going to need to be careful, my spies have been reporting sightings of strange dark warriors roaming around, I think we might be dealing with inquisitors soon."

"Pssh, with my training and Kanan's skills, these guys won't be a problem for us anymore," Ezra snarked.

Kanan shook his head, "We'll be care, me AND Ezra," he said, shooting Ezra a warning glance.

"Then may the force be with you," said Sato, ending the transmission.

"Alright," said Kanan, clapping his hands together, "We have some work to do."

* * *

"So where do you think we are going to begin?" Ezra pestered Sabine as they walked back to their respective cabins.

"Well, what _we_ are going to do is look through star charts and planet lists to find a place to set up camp," the girl replied.

"Where are we gonna find those?" asked Ezra.

"Well, luckily for us, I already happen to have some in my room, come on, I'll show you," she answered as she walked through the door to her cabin.

Ezra's heart skipped a beat, Sabine had never ever invited him into her room, perhaps he _was_ making progress after all!

"Are you just going to stand there and stare like an idiot or are you going to help me?" Sabine asked him with a look of amusement on her face.

"R-right," Ezra stammered as he was brought out of his reverie and he scrambled through the doorway.

While Ezra had seen the inside of Sabine's cabin before, he had never really seen it this up close and personal.

Her colorful artworks were well painted and designed, they ranged from very simplistic, like a caricature of a Duro in a large hat, to more complex, like a painting of a moon in the shadow of a planet.

Sabine began rooting through a drawer next to her bed and as Ezra continued to observe the paintings, one soon caught his eye.

It was a drawing of him, a rather flattering drawing of him striking a classic pose, winking and giving a thumbs up.

A smirk grew on the boy's face as his heart beat increased, this could be fun.

"I think I found what I'm looking for," said Sabine as her rummaging slowed.

"Really now?" said Ezra coyly as he moved silently to stand directly behind her.

Sabine grabbed a data pad from the drawer she was rummaging through and began to stand up, "Yep this is what I was looking for-EZRA!" she yelped as she came face to face with the boy in question.

Ezra doubled over in laughter as Sabine glowered at him, "Ezra, we have work to do you know!"

"Sorry I was a little distracted by this uh, _flattering_ , picture that someone drew of me," he put a hand to his chin, "Perhaps a secret admirer? Because _someone_ put a lot of _effort_ into making me look as good as possible."

Sabine sighed as her shoulders slumped in annoyance, then her demeanor changed as a sly smirk crossed her face.

"Well you know, nothing, but the best for a _dashing_ hero such as yourself," she said in a fake love-struck tone of voice.

"Yeah that's a laugh Sabi-wait, what?" asked a thoroughly confused Ezra.

"Well, you know I have to portray your good looks accurately, I am an artist after all," she pointed out matter-of-factly.

"W-wait, you think I'm good looking?" he stammered as she began to close the distance between the two of them.

"Of course, this is the first time we've been alone y'know, couldn't really tell you with all the others around," she dreamily sighed.

She took another step towards the red-faced boy, data pad held in front of her, "You know, I just have to ask a favor from you."

"Y-yeah?" he gulped.

She took another step closer as Ezra backed into a wall, their bodies nearly touching.

"Mind holding this for a second?"

"S-sure," he agreed readily, his mind a mess of teenage hormones.

"Thanks!" she said brightly, "Now you can start looking for planets, like you were originally _supposed to do_."

She turned around again to head back to rummaging through her drawer.

Ezra's nervous expression quickly turned to one of outrage, "That is _so_ not fair!"

"All's fair in love and war kid!" she replied over her shoulder.

Ezra sulked for a moment, but as he began to turn on the data pad, he noticed a black paint sprayer, and right next to it, a not quite finished self-portrait of Sabine.

An evil grin wormed its way onto his face as he picked up the paint in one hand and turned towards Sabine's work.

Upon hearing the sound of hissing, Sabine quickly turned around to notice that Ezra had defaced her art of herself with a thick bushy mustache and monocles.

"Y'know, I think it's a good look for you," he mused as she stared at him in shock.

"Ezra, what did you do!?" she exclaimed horrified.

"What's wrong? If anything, I'd say I improved it!"

"Give me that paint, I'll improve you!"

"All's fair in love and war," Ezra mimicked her with a huge grin as he dropped his data pad to grip the paint canister with both hands.

"Oh, it's a war alright!" she said.

The two were interrupted by a loud beeping noise from the floor.

Ezra and Sabine stopped their epic struggle for the paint can, both of them looking down at the data pad that was currently displaying a planet and incessantly beeping.

Sabine reached down and scooped up the electronic device and observed the information on it.

Apparently when Ezra dropped it, the device had cycled through some planets and happened to land in the U section.

"What does it say?" asked Ezra.

"Utapau," she replied.

"Utapau?" he repeated, confused.

"Yeah, Utapau. It was a system that the Confederacy occupied during the Clone Wars, from what I can remember, it chafed under its occupation. It's in the outer rim, and it has barely any surface buildings, everything is in large sinkholes. And the best part about it is, the Empire has no use for the planet, and has probably been combed for rebel cells already."

"So, you think this might be the place?" asked Ezra.

"I think we have a winner Ezra!"

"Alright! We make quite the team, right?"

Sabine crossed her arms, "If you call what just occurred 'teamwork' then yeah, I suppose we do."

"Let's agree not to mention what happened here," Ezra offered.

"Yeah let's not," she said, "You go let Hera and Kanan know about the find and I'll gather up some more info, I _swear_ I have some more star charts around here somewhere."

As she began to head to the cupboard once more, she gave one glance to her ruined self-portrait, "Man, this is going to take forever to fix!"

"It'll take a long time, because you'll be too busy drawing pictures of _me_!" Ezra laughed.

In response Sabine shoved him out of her room and closed the door, she could hear him chuckling all the way down the hall.

"That boy," she said, shaking her head.

Her eyes wandered to the picture of Ezra she had drawn on her wall.

It was next to the other pictures she had drawn of her "family," Kanan standing tall and proud, Hera with a confident smile on her face, Zeb with a look of evil glee, doubtlessly thinking about bashing Imperials, and Chopper, with his electro probe extended. And of course, Ezra was the newest addition, with his wide, brilliant smile, his unruly navy hair, and his blue eyes that shone bright as a star as he struck a goofy pose.

Ok, _maybe_ he was kinda cute, in a boyish sort of way.

Sabine shook her quickly to get _that_ thought out of her head.

 _Yeah, in his dreams_.

* * *

 _A/N: Whoa, its been quite awhile! I'm back from the Hiatus and will be working diligently on what is now Act II of the story._

 _The reason I took so long to begin this is because of Laziness (mainly) and spending some time thinking about where I was gonna take this story, I had most of Act I figured out, but as for the remainder of the story I had no clue what I was going to do, luckily I did a bunch of brainstorming and now I have a general direction again, which will make writing much easier._

 _I hope I did good with that little bit of "romance" there, gimme some feedback._

 _By the way, Navitas is a planet I made up, its Latin for "Energy."_

 _Thanks all!_


	16. Sinkholes

The Ghost blasted out of hyperspace, the small grey ship slowing down from its catapult through the blue white tunnel of faster than light travel.

Directly in front of the ship loomed Utapau, with its multiple moons surrounding the planet.

"Alright, this is it," said Hera as the group took the site of the planet in.

Utapau was a smaller globe, colored mostly brown with little splotches of green, a complete lack of cities or any kind of civilization was the planet's most striking feature.

"So far, we haven't seen any Imperial patrols," Sabine said from her position at the Ghost's monitoring scopes.

"That's a good sign, any local forces or stations?" asked Kanan.

"None whatsoever, this planet is so out of the way from any major shipping lanes that I doubt there is any need for orbital protection."

"I suppose that's why the Confederacy used it for a base of operations then," Kanan said, looking deep in thought.

"It's a worthless wasteland," grunted Zeb.

"In that case, it's perfect!" Ezra chipped in.

"The natives live in sinkhole cities underground, the planet is filled with them, we'll be meeting a contact down on the surface who's a part of a small group of rebel sympathizers working here," said Hera.

"So, we're gonna be operating out of a hole in the ground, karabast, that sounds fantastic," quipped Zeb sarcastically.

"You don't seem to like this place to much, do you Zeb?" Hera inquired with an expression of bemusement.

"Let's just call it a gut feeling, this place gives me serious, uh, _reservations_."

"I don't like this place very much either Zeb, but right now it's the best we can get," Kanan said.

The Ghost's comms went off in its highly recognizable beeping pattern and the image of a male Pau'an appeared to the crew.

Ezra's eyes widened a little and he fought back a yelp as memories of the murderous Grand Inquisitor reentered his mind unwittingly.

"Greeting Ghost crew, I am Krol Toderon, I trust your flight was well?" he asked pleasantly.

The man had grey skin, and looked tall, wearing a red flowing robe that was customary to his people.

Ezra relaxed a little bit, the Grand Inquisitor was gone, he had nothing to fear from this Pau'an, in fact this guy would probably be their salvation.

"Yes, indeed it was Captain Toderon, thank you very much," Hera replied.

"I would like this call to be brief, the Imperials tend to ignore this planet and the local government here likes to keep it that way on purpose, but there's no telling if the Imperials are monitoring our space, we'll discuss more on the ground," Toderon cautioned.

"I copy Toderon, over and out," Hera replied, entering the newly arrived coordinates into their nav computer as the holo fizzed out.

The Ghost blasted forward out of the cold depths of space to meet the more comforting tones of a planet.

* * *

The sinkhole that phoenix squad were going to be taking refuge in was smaller than the one the Pau'ans generally inhabited.

The Ghost landed on one of the ridges formed out a cave inside the sinkhole, a small group of natives waiting for them, Captain Toderon amongst them.

The ramp opened with Kanan, Hera, Ezra, and Sabine walking down to meet the rebel cell.

"Welcome to paradise," Toderon said, gesturing to the cliff walls, the light from the nearest star illuminating the sinkhole.

"Quite the place," Kanan commented.

"Nothing, but the best for our bravest fighters," Toderon said.

"You're too kind, glad to see that this worked out so well," said Hera with a smile.

"Utapau has been cut off generally from the rest of the galaxy at large, and our little cell is hardly really a rebellion," said Toderon, "This is one of our hideouts, it has a fresh water supply, and its far away enough from civilization that your activities won't be noticed, but it is close enough that you can make daily communes for food and other supplies as well."

"Sounds pretty good, I suppose that's the Jedi effect right Kanan?" said Ezra.

"Apparently," said Kanan.

"Your taking down of the Grand Inquisitor is legendary amongst rebel circles," said Toderon with a look of contentment.

"I suppose word of that probably got around," Kanan said casually.

"We'll begin calling the fleet down momentarily," Hera announced. She turned to face their new Pau'an ally, "You are quite positive our operations won't be noticed?"

Toderon nodded, "Positive, there are plenty of pirate and smugglers rings located in sinkholes like ours, the government just tends to ignore them, they will do the same for you and your fleet."

"They just ignore them? That doesn't seem right," Sabine said, sounding unsure.

"The government doesn't have enough of a security force to weed them out, the only way to get rid of them would be to call for Imperial support. We Utapauns remember the Separatist occupation very well, and they would very much like to keep our newfound autonomy if possible," Toderon replied.

"So, the pirates and the government have a sort of agreement?" asked Kanan.

"I doubt there have been any formal meetings, but yeah in a way they do, the criminals stay away from the cities and the government leaves them alone."

"Pretty terrible that it's gotten to this point," said Sabine, shaking her head.

"You have to do what you have to do, especially out here in the outer rim," he said with a shrug.

"We'll be careful nonetheless," said Hera.

"We will leave you to your setup, give us notification and we can assist," Toderon said.

"Thank you very much, your kindness is very much appreciated," said Hera, reaching to shake his hand.

They shook hands and the crew began to assemble their base in haste.

* * *

The Phantom cruised low across the barren plains of Utapau, toward the Utapaun capital, Pau city.

Inside the small auxiliary ship was Ezra, Sabine, Julian, and Chopper. The Ghost and Phoenix squad were all full-on fuel, but that would more than not likely last. Their job was to scour the capital city for suitable suppliers for fuel and other resources that the rebel cell would need.

"Alright, we are approaching capital city," said Sabine.

"We should be getting the contacted by the locals sometime soon," Julian stated.

The comm crackled to life.

"Unidentified ship, please state your business at Pau City," a disembodied voice stated.

"Pau City, this is the Phantom, we are here for fuel and other ship repair supplies," Sabine replied.

There was silence for just a second, then the voice filtered through again, "Acknowledged Phantom, please land at dock 17-B."

"Setting course now, thanks for the hospitality," Sabine said, "Alright, we'll be there in a couple seconds."

* * *

The Phantom circled the dock, a large skeletal bone structure taking the shape of the "roof" of the hangar.

The small ship touched down, and the small group of rebels stepped out.

Sabine turned back towards Chopper as Ezra and Julian began to walk away, "Stay here Chopper, keep the ship prepped to launch, if you run into any trouble, bolt," she advised the droid, "Keep your comm open in case we need any assistance."

The droid beeped in return and turned around back into the ship.

Sabine sped walk to meet Ezra and Julian, who were discussing something that almost _certainly_ had nothing to do with their current task at hand.

"Kid, you're a liar."

"I absolutely _can_."

"No."

"I absolutely can use mind tricks!"

"Alright that's enough," interjected Sabine into the conversation, "The first place we can look would be the market, I recommend we split up to see what we can find, Ezra you're with me."

"Ooh, I knew you would do this, just had to take a moment to get alone with me

"It's because when you inevitably goof off I can beat you up myself," answered Sabine, as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

Ezra winced, "Dang, that's cold!"

"Maybe you can use one of your advanced mind tricks on her in the future," Julian suggested snidely.

"Oh hush."

"Comm if you see anything," Julian said to Sabine, ignoring Ezra for the moment.

"Likewise, good luck."

* * *

Julian trudged through the marketplace standing out like a sore thumb, while there was the occasional human or humanoid character, there were mostly Pa'uans and Utai milling around the area.

"Fuel and any other shipping will be located on the opposite of where we are right now, right where Ezra and Sabine are currently headed."

Julian came to a full stop and heaved a massive sigh, "And you planned on telling me this when Lincoln?" he whispered back into his helmet.

The AI's steady voice replied, "At this very moment."

"I assume you have a reason for the delay?" asked Julian.

"Certainly, Ezra and Sabine will be able to handle the current task at hand, however I believe I have found a new goal for us."

"And what might that be?" Julian said through grit teeth as he avoided a stream of Utai walking towards him.

"When we first contacted the planets government, I took the liberty of inserting myself into their systems."

"You weren't detected?"

Lincoln chuckled, "Absolutely not. I could have easily taken down their whole network if I had just a few more minutes, I only went after their monitoring equipment. And I found something, an anomaly if you will."

"And why did you discover it and not he Pa'uans?" Julian questioned.

"When a took control of the monitoring equipment I immediately began scans, around ten thousand per millisecond-,"

"Ten thousand per millisecond?! Jesus I forgot how efficient you AI are with your forerunner upgrades."

"As I was saying before," Lincoln cut back in with a hint of amusement in his voice, "I did what the stations would normally do and found nothing out of the ordinary, then I changed a couple security codes discreetly, and played around with some settings and I got the scanners to do some cross examinations, something that they are normally not supposed to do given how inefficient it is, and I found a massive anomaly just near to where we are standing actually."

"Where is it exactly now?"

"Putting up a waypoint."

The small blue diamond appeared on Julian's HUD, a small shop from the looks of it, just a couple dozen feet away.

"That's the anomaly?" said a confused Julian.

"The starter point for it begins inside that large chain shop."

"Alright, I suppose we'd better investigate personally then, don't need any unforeseen anomalies messing with our plans," said Julian as he stepped into a nearby alleyway.

When Julian emerged, or rather _didn't_ emerge, he was completely invisible, an active camo system keeping the armored man unseen.

He quickly and stealthily moved into the shop, passing through door after door as employees walked to and from places in the store.

His waypoint led him deep into the heart of the restricted areas of the store until he arrived at what looked to be a private lounge for corporate elites of the store chain.

The room was bland, no discernable or differentiating features of any kind were on display.

Yet, looks could be deceiving.

Julian, with help from Lincoln, quickly found a secret set of hidden buttons.

Pressing them all down, a small door opened and Julian, still in his active camo, entered the small doorway.

He entered a dark tunnel that seemed to stretch for miles upon end.

Finally, after minutes of walking deeper into the dark abyss, Julian saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

As he walked through the tunnel opened into a massive cavern, doubtlessly formed by water drainage, seeing as how there were several water falls cascading down, beating the weathered rock back.

That was not the most striking feature however, no the most striking feature of the cave was the hordes of Amani workers, nearly unclothed, wearing metallic collars and watched over by Pa'uan taskmasters as they dug and attempted to uncover a massive dark pyramid.

Julian gaped at the site, awestruck.

"Lincoln, I hope you're recording this, because I think we just stumbled onto something big."

* * *

 _A/N: I gotta stop with these long waits between updates. I'll be working on bettering the update schedule, thanks for the patience as usual._

 _Give me some feedback!_


	17. Chains Below

The sound of tools hitting rock and the grunts of effort, along with a strange background humming noise

Readjusting to a closer position on an outcropping, Julian activated the zoom function on his HUD to get a better look at the operation taking place in the massive pit.

He had already taken stock of the large group of Amani workers and their metallic collars, however a closer look revealed something even more disturbing.

One of the Amani was swing a tool at a boulder that was obscuring part of the pyramid shaped object. In its haste, the Amani slipped and fell the ground, the tool dropping next to him with a loud clank.

Julian watched as Pa'uan marched over to the downed Amani and began shouting at it in an alien language, waving his arms around wildly all the while. When the Amani worker was slow to get up, the Pa'uan pressed a button on wrist gauntlet. The Amani shook violently and let out a shriek, clearly in pain at the quick shock it received.

"Clearly, it's an electric shock collar," Lincoln whispered into Julian's ear, as the Amani scrambled up and grabbed the tool to continue hacking away at the boulder.

Julian returned his HUD back to its default state, "They're using slave labor to dig up whatever that pyramid is," he said grimly.

Lincoln appeared next to Julian behind the outcropping the Spartan was using for cover.

His black top hat was slightly lowered as he put a hand to his bearded chin in thought.

"The species that is being forced to work is called the Amani, they're an immigrated species to Utapau," he said after a pause, "One of their more notable features is the fact that they are quite primitive, they haven't adapted to the galaxy at large technology wise."

"So these people get cheap, easy, slave labor, man I thought I was done breaking up slave rings, apparently," said Julian.

"Of course, this has very personal connotations for you doesn't it?" Lincoln asked.

Julian grunted, "Unfortunately, now is not the time for that, we need to get a closer look, see what kind of operation we're dealing with," he said, sitting up slightly.

With a simple eye flick, Julian's HUD lit up into Promethean vision, various shades of blue, yellow, and orange lighting up the inside of his visor.

With another eye command, the slaves turned green while the slavers were turned red.

Spying a walkway down further into the pit, Julian activated his active camo and began to make his way into the dark depths below.

* * *

"Yes, of course, thank you very much," said Sabine, handing the small creature a sack of credits.

She and Ezra were currently on the outskirts of the market place

The small Utai excitedly jumped and ran off, clutching his new credits.

Sabine sighed in exasperation.

"I think we just got completely swindled," said Ezra.

"I can't believe that was the lowest price we could find inside this entire market," she grumbled.

"Still, at least we got some, maybe there will be some better merchants next time the market shifts," Ezra said, trying to brighten her sour mood.

"Maybe so, maybe so, at least we got what we came for," she admitted.

Ezra grinned, "That's the spirit!" he said enthusiastically.

Sabine gave him a small smile in return, "Well, we should probably get back to the rendezvous point and wait for Julian," she said as she began to turn and walk away.

"Wait!" exclaimed Ezra, grabbing the crux of her arm, "Where's your sense of adventure?"

Sabine quickly jerked her arm and looked at Ezra strangely, "Ezra, what are you talking about?" she asked, sounding confused.

"I mean, we should explore the rest of this city!" he said excitedly, "We've only seen a small part of what this place has to offer!"

Sabine raised an eyebrow, "Are you quite sure about that? What if Julian gets back to the point and we aren't there?"

"Oh c'mon Sabine, you worry too much, Julian will be fine without us," he dismissed her concerns.

"This is just a scheme to spend more time with me isn't it?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

Ezra hesitated, "Well, uh, I just sorta considered that a plus really," he admitted sheepishly, "If we're gonna be here for while I want to know the layout of this place."

"Layout?"

Ezra nodded, "Yeah, layout, like escape routes or places we can hold out if need be, it's kind of a habit I picked up while I was living on the streets," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

Sabine's expression softened as she took in what Ezra said.

"Well, I suppose looking around wouldn't hurt," she said thoughtfully, eyeing Ezra's happy expression. "Alright, let's head on out then," she admitted defeat.

Ezra threw his fist in the air, giving a mock cheer as the pair began to make their way to the unexplored parts of the city.

* * *

"What are they saying?" Julian asked in a hush to Lincoln.

"Amplifying hearing," Lincoln replied.

After creeping around for a little bit, Julian had discovered another chamber in the pit, this one was circular shaped, with a domed roof. However unlike the previous underground sinkhole, this one looked artificial. Ancient runes covered the walls and lights and machinery hummed and whirred, pulsating with a red light.

The most striking feature of the room however, was the massive group of heavily armored droids standing completely still and deactivated in the center of the chamber.

Around the large droids were a small group of Pa'uans standing idly by, guarding the hulking monstrosities.

Two of the Pa'uans were clearly in charge, ordering their guards to do various tasks and observing the machines while talking.

Thanks to the advanced cybernetic hearing unit, often nicknamed "artificial ears," Julian could now hear everything the two were saying to each other.

"The pyramid nears completion, soon it will be fully excavated and ready for us to use," the one on the right hissed.

"Very good," the left one replied.

"Why not activate our army and seize power right now? These ancient sith droids will be more than a match for whatever poultry militia the government raises," the right one said.

The left one raised his arm to silence him, "Patience brother, these droids are far more special than you think."

The right one snarled, "In what way?! I have been kept in the dark about everything pertaining to these creations!"

The left one sighed, "These droids are receptive to the force. The ancients set them up to absorb the life force out a person when they are killed. What we need is someone strong in the force to fuel these monsters, the average being is far too weak in the force to provide sustenance for an army."

The left one turned to face the right one, "And I have the perfect candidate as well. The rebels have recently decided to set up camp here on our lovely world, and among them is the young Padawan Bridger. He is quite strong in the force, yet he is far too inexperienced to pose any kind of threat. Go now, assemble a team, and bring him to me, you will find him in the fourth northern quadrant of the city."

The right one nodded and turned to leave, however, the left one was not done talking; "When we have Bridger as a sacrifice, nothing will be able to stand in our way, go now and act with haste."

"It will be done brother," the right one said.

He turned and ran into a tunnel.

Julian turned off his hearing assistance and spoke, "We need to move, now!" he said.

Not waiting to hear what his AI said in response, the Spartan turned around to race back to where he came from; if he wanted to save his friends, he would have to be quick.

* * *

"Ooo, now this one is really good!" Sabine gushed.

Ezra and Sabine had been walking around the sinkhole city for around thirty minutes now, of course fifteen minutes of that had been spent walking around the large art gallery.

The building itself was located at the edge of the main sinkhole the city was built in, a large glass window providing natural lighting to the gallery.

Of course, Sabine was enthralled with it, much to Ezra's delight and simultaneous reluctance.

"The coloring and contours on this one are insane! I can't even do something like this!" exclaimed Sabine, closely observing a painting of a large plain and a sunset, more than likely a native Utapaun one.

"Sure you could," Ezra offered.

Sabine shook her head, "It must've taken years to even get the backgrounds right!"

"That's probably why it's here in the museum then," said Ezra with a shrug, "Maybe someday someone will put your stuff in a museum."

"When we win, maybe I'll see if I can't get my graffiti in some kind of memorial," said Sabine looking back at the painting.

"Maybe I could be of some help with that dream."

Sabine and Ezra both whirled around to see who the new voice belonged too.

The voice belonged to a certain suave, space scoundrel wearing a light blue shirt.

"Lando?" Sabine exclaimed.

"Lando," Ezra said glumly.

"The one and only," Lando said with a wide grin.

"What are you doing here?" Sabine asked, now thoroughly confused.

"You've been following us haven't you?!" Ezra accused.

Lando threw up his hands, "Whoa whoa whoa, slow down there, can't an art collector admire some of his favorite works?"

"I thought you were a connoisseur, when did you become a collector?" asked Sabine.

Lando scratched the top of his head, "Well, I'm not a collector, not yet at least."

He cleared his throat, "The owner of this fine establishment is quite the gambler, a quick little game and this place will be all mine."

"What will happen to all the art pieces then?" asked Sabine.

"Well, that's up for the buyers to decide," he shrugged.

"Wait a minute, you're going to try and take this place from the owner, rip him off probably, and then sell all the pieces to anyone who tries to buy them?! Are you nuts?!" exclaimed Sabine, outraged.

"It's a perfectly reasonable business plan!" Lando insisted.

"That's ridiculous!" Sabine retorted angrily.

By this point Ezra had tuned the two and their argument out, not because he was disinterested, heck, he would pay money to watch Sabine chew out Lando anyday. No, something more pressing was taking his attention, the entire room was completely empty save for them.

The force flowed around him, in a premonition of danger as a shadow moved out of the corner of Ezra's eye. He whirled around, but only found another painting with a Pa'uan dressed in black on it. As Ezra turned around again he saw the same shadow move in the corner of his eye flicker yet again. Except this time when Ezra turned around to face the painting, something was different.

The Pa'uan dressed in black on the piece of artwork was gone.

Suddenly the force screamed in his ear a shrill warning, and the dark side flooded into the room.

"Guys I think we have a problem-" Ezra began to warn, but the crashing sound of a door and the shattering of some windows cut him off.

As Sabine and Lando drew their blasters, a squad of the black wearing Pa'uans quickly moved into the room, blocking all the exits.

"Oh karabast," Ezra groaned.

The assembled group of black clad enemies drew various weapons, like blasters, vibroblades and the lot. However, one stood out from the rest.

Stepping ahead of his group, he drew a red lightsaber and smirked.

"You're coming with me boy," he growled.

* * *

 _A/N: 20 days to update. 20 days! Unbelievable how bad I've gotten with these updates. I'll be getting a new chapter up on Wednesday and Saturday WITHOUT FAIL._

 _I've been incredibly busy and it's left little room for this story, which is saddening seeing how many ideas I have for it. However, things are normalizing now and I'm getting used to my new schedule. I'll be setting goals for myself in the future._

 _Give me some feedback and as always thanks for reading._


	18. Red Menace

"Ok, nobody move," whispered Ezra to his companions as he gripped his glowing blade tightly.

The small group were now surrounded by the hostile assailants. The lead one with the glowing red blade spoke again, "I am giving you a choice Padawan, surrender now and your friends will probably survive," he paused, "Or you could simply choose to fight and watch your friends die.:

"I think you should do what he says," gulped Lando, wearily glancing at the black clad figures surrounding them.

Ezra ignored him, "We aren't going anywhere, especially not with an inquisitor," he said defiantly.

The figure with the glowing red blade laughed, "You think I am one of Vader's puppets?" he laughed again, "No child, I am _much worse_ than one of those _pretenders_!"

Ezra's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed again, "How did you know we were here?" he demanded to the Pa'uan.

The Pa'uan snarled, "Enough stalling Jedi! You are coming with us!" the Pa'uan held his hand out and with a mighty force push hurled Ezra and his companions into a wall.

Suddenly, feeling movement behind him, the Pa'uan swiftly swung his lightsaber around in a wide arc to cleave an armored figure clean in half.

Ezra and Sabine could only watch in horror as the halves of what was once Julian fell to the ground.

"No!"

The Pa'uan chuckled as he observed the corpse, "A protector of yours I assume? He didn't fare very well."

As the seemingly triumphant darksider continued, the halves of the body began to fizzle out of existence, something that he did not fail to notice.

"What trickery is this?" he growled, looking down at the body.

Then almost at the speed of light a fist flew out of nowhere, striking him violently on the face.

As the Sith was flung backwards, a large figure began to slowly materialize, bringing up and firing two small sub machine guns, downing three of the black clad members instantly and sending the rest of them scrambling for cover.

The situation in just a single second had dissolved into chaos, breaking the complete control the darksider had for a few short moments.

Sabine and Lando had ducked behind a crevice and were firing wildly at anything that moved, Julian was attempting to make his way to Ezra, who was stuck near the center of the room, desperately blocking shots with his glowing sword.

The darksider was not the brightest of all the creatures, but even the dullest of predators can sense when their prey is weak. And Ezra was in very indefensible position.

In a flash of darkside energy, the Pa'uan forced Julian back with a brutal force push, smashing the armored behemoth through a wall. Seeing that the Spartan was incapacitated for the moment, the darksider rushed Ezra.

Ezra, skilled as he was, could not hope to survive in a fight against a lightsaber and blaster clad wielding enemies. And so with a cry of pain, the Pa'uan lightsaber flashed against his leg, leaving a shallow, but painful slice. His scream was quickly extinguished when he was knocked out by a stun blast from behind.

"Ezra, no!" Sabine screamed as she began to fire wildly at the Pa'uan, but it was far too late. The darksider lazily blocked the shots and moved out the now broken window to a waiting speeder.

Julian had recovered by this point, and unleashed a hell storm of fire from his guns, managing to down one speeder, but as before it was far too late.

The unknown enemy had Ezra.

* * *

"A little more to the side."

The rebel moving crates gripped the edge of the munitions crate and pushed it slightly to the side.

Hera nodded her approval, "That's perfect."

The rebel cell had just begun to unload its supplies from its small frigate squadron and operations had been proceeding without any kind of interruption, something Commander Sato was very pleased about.

Their new-found companion, Krol Toderon, was also rather pleased.

"I'm very glad that our humble planet can provide the soil for the seeds of a rebellion," he said to Hera, as the two were headed back to the main command hub.

Hera waved the Pa'uan off, "Really, we should be the ones thanking you! You've taken an awful risk assisting us."

Krol chuckled, "Truly, there is no Imperial presence here on this planet, we have almost nothing to fear."

Hera nodded, "I don't doubt that for a moment," she hesitated, "There's been something I've been meaning to ask you for a little while."

Krol smiled, "Ask away."

"We all have some sort of story about the Empire taking something from us," she paused, gauging Krols neutral expression, "What about you and your cell?"

Krol hesitated for a moment, putting a hand on his chin, then sighed.

"My family and I lost my brother to the Empire, he was Jedi Knight during the Clone Wars, he was killed during order 66 when the clones all turned," he said, looking off into the distance wistfully.

Hera's expression saddened, "I'm sorry to hear that, the Jedi truly were the light in our galaxy."

Krol smiled, "Which is why when I see your Jedi companions, it warms my heart. My brother will never live to see the day that the Empire falls, but it will come someday. I just wish to prevent more deaths like his."

Hera nodded firmly, "We will win, for your brother and for all others like him," she said, putting a hand on the Pa'uans shoulder.

Krol gave a look of appreciation, suddenly Heras wrist commlink went off.

"That must be Sabine," Hera stated as she pressed the button to accept the call, "Sabine is that you?" she asked.

" _Hera! Thank the stars! We have a HUGE problem!"_

Hera frowned, "What's going on Sabine?"

" _We were ambushed by some kind of terrorist group at the art gallery in Capital City, they kidnapped Ezra and their leader has a red lightsaber!"_

"Oh no…" breathed Krol.

"Where are they now? Are they Imperials?!" Hera demanded, internally beginning to panic.

" _They definitely weren't Imperial, as for where Ezra is, we don't know. I'm worried about him Hera."_

Hera swore, "Alright, kriff, stay there, help is on the way, we _will_ find him."

" _Better bring Kanan along."_

Hera growled, "Oh you better believe I am." She cut the line.

"I can't believe this has happened," said Krol, "There hasn't been any activity from this group for years."

Hera looked at him with narrowed eyes, "What group?"

Krol sighed, "The ancient Sith controlled this planet a long time ago, apparently they tainted this place with their dark side magic, this has led to cults popping up throughout our history, people who worship the ancient Sith."

"What group?" asked Hera again.

Krol averted her gaze for a moment, the looker her dead in the eye.

"They're called the Brotherhood of Darkness and I believe they are the ones one kidnapped your friend."

* * *

"Run the simulation again."

Across the open room a massive projection of a planet and its surrounding moons. In between them danced hundreds of small ships each on an opposing side. Small fighters danced around each other, small balls of light igniting indicating their demises. The battleships and cruisers hurled volleys across space and tore each other apart.

A hand went up, outlined by the light from the projection, signaling to the AI to pause the simulation.

The small glowing AI, in the uncanny resemblance of war hero Captain Lasky spoke, "Is that all you need so far?" he questioned.

The figure shrouded in darkness shook his head, "I need to know more of our current military capabilities."

He snapped his fingers, "Lasky, what is the population count of all UNSC cores and territories?"

"489,786,450,321 humans currently residing under direct UNSC control."

The figure put a hand to his chin, "I remember at the end of the war it was only about 20 billion."

"A massive population boom at the end of war due to massive amounts of jobs and the direct encouragement of extensive breeding by the UNSC government, which was supported by social programs. The average household family size 15 years after the end of the war was 4.37. I can get into more statistics-,"

The figure waved him off, "I know all this already Keys, I don't need a history lesson here."

"Now, how many divisions do we have currently?"

"734,679 divisions are currently mobilized, which equates to 14,693,593,509 manpower or 3% of the population."

The man paused, "Our naval capacity?"

"1,007,890 ships of various arms and armaments are currently available for UNSC use, this includes retired ships from pre-war, war, and post-war eras."

The man sighed, "And how does this stack up against the Empire?"

"Our current military might is approximately 25% of the Empires strength."

"A prolonged war would be our downfall," the man said, he shifted around, "Therefore our strategy must be quick and precise if we are to win this coming fight. Keys, galaxy projection."

"Of course, sir," the AI responded.

The galaxy projected, illuminating the wide room, and revealing the man's face.

He was an old man, looking to be in his 80s, though the effects of cryosleep had extended his life span significantly. He wore an old, white Admiral's Uniform. On his chest was dozens upon dozens of military awards and certifications. And right above one was a name tag.

It read quite simply, _Hood_.

"I've been asleep for a long time old friend," Admiral Hood said, beginning to manipulate the galaxy before him.

"It's time to get to work."

* * *

 _A/N: New faces and old legends. I told you I'd upload today! This ones a bit shorter than usual, but its certainly better then going twenty days without an update! Anyways, give me some feedback!_


	19. Explosions and Tricks of the Mind

The Ghost descended down onto the platform.

As soon as the ramp hit a 180-degree angle, Kanan, Hera, Zeb, and Krol, ran out immediately to meet Sabine, Julian, and Lando.

The groups reaction to Lando was not positive.

"Oh great," Zeb grunted.

"What are you doing here?" Hera asked in an accusatory tone.

Lando immediately took a defensive stance, "Let's not worry about that right now, how about we work on trying to find your friend?"

Hera sighed, "Fine, this discussion isn't over though."

"We need to find Ezra immediately, we don't have time to wait," Kanan stated, "I can't find his signature anywhere in the force. Do we have any leads as to where he might be?"

Sabine and Lando both shook their heads, but Julian stepped forward, "I've got a pretty good idea," the armored soldier stated.

"You do?" asked Krol.

Julian gave a nod of his helmeted head, "Yes, while I was split from Ezra and Sabine, I decided to go exploring. My suit detected an anomaly coming from beneath a store. Underneath it was some kind of horrible underground dungeon, I saw that goon with the lightsaber there as well. I'm willing to bet that is almost certainly where Ezra is."

"Take us there, now!" Kanan urged.

The group took off at top speed to find their friend.

* * *

When Ezra finally woke up from his unconscious state, he awoke to a nasty surprise.

The first thing he noticed was the darkness of the room he was currently in; the only light came from a small dim fixture on the ceiling.

The second thing he noticed was the fact that he was currently completely restrained to a table and he couldn't move.

The third things he noticed was a lot of strange machinery littered around the table he was currently occupying. It looked like an operation table.

Ezra shifted again, trying to find a way to break free from his restraints, but they didn't budge.

To top it all off, his connection to the force was _muted_.

 _They must've drugged me_ , Ezra thought.

Seeing as how he was completely immobile, he decided to wait and resign himself to his fate.

He didn't have to wait long.

The door to the small room opened up, and a Pa'uan walked through, flanked by the darksider who cut into his leg, the pain of which had been reduced to a dull throb.

"Do you know why you are here?" the Pa'uan said coolly.

"No, and I don't care why. Let me out of here!" Ezra growled at the darksider.

The Pa'uan laughed, "I am sorry, but that is not possible."

"If you're going to kill me, then I'd suggest hurrying it up, my friends will be here soon," Ezra promised.

The Pa'uans sickly eyes narrowed, "Oh, I very much doubt that, but no, I'm not going to kill you."

At the boys confused look, the Pa'uan began to explain;

"You are far too valuable to simply be cast aside, your _gift_ in the force is abnormally strong."

"What are you talking about?" Ezra asked, even more confused.

"Your strength in the force, is enough to fuel my new army," stated the Pa'uan bluntly.

"Your new army?! Who are you people?" Ezra demanded.

The Pa'uan eyes bore into Ezra, "I am Lord Ondol, and we are the Brotherhood of Darkness."

"The Brotherhood of Darkness," said Ezra flatly.

"An ancient order of the Sith, once incredibly powerful, with armies of darkside users, but betrayed by Darth Bane and his rule of two. We are a reformation of the old order, when the Sith fought with massive armies and fleets. Palpatine and his cronies may be Sith and in control of the galaxy, but the darkside has never been weaker," Lord Ondol ranted.

"So, what do you want with me?" asked Ezra.

"When the ancient Sith fell, they left behind many things, relics, teachings, and most importantly; weapons. On this planet there is an ancient deactivated army of droids. On their own they are quite powerful, but they have one special usage, they can use the life force of a living being to make themselves incredibly powerful," he turned to face Ezra, "A lifeforce that you possess in large quantities."

As he said these words, the implications were not lost on Ezra and his face began to pale.

"You will not die, but you will wish you were, Jedi filth," Lord Ondol sneered.

"The Empire will never allow you to get away with this!" Ezra cried, fear beginning to set in.

The Pa'uan chuckled darkly, "Once our temple is uncovered, we will never have to worry about any Imperial ships entering Utapua's orbit alive ever again. Don't fret young one, for your sacrifice shall soon help build a new Sith Empire that shall stretch across the stars."

With that Lord Ondol walked out of the room leaving Ezra alone with his lackeys.

The one who had cut Ezra's leg stepped forward, grabbing one of the tools that he noticed earlier.

"Let's get right too it, shall we?" he said with a maniacal grin.

Ezra gulped.

* * *

"It's this way!" said Julian, leading the small group of rebel heroes to where he had originally found the darksider pit.

"What else did you hear when you were spying on them?" Kanan shouted as they ran, trying to get more information from the Spartan.

"Something about using the life force of a force user to fuel some kind of army!" Julian shouted back.

"I don't know what any of that means, but I think Ezra's in trouble!" declared Kanan.

"We must act quickly!" Krol urged.

"An army, oh man what have I gotten myself into?!" Lando moaned.

Suddenly, the Spartan slowed his pace down as the group entered an alleyway.

Coming to a complete stop, the Spartan peered around the corner of the bustling square and pointed at a store.

"It's that one right there," said Julian.

"So how are we going to get to Ezra?" asked Hera.

"Well if we rush into the store guns blazing it will alert the entirety of this cult," Julian replied.

"Can't you do that invisi-thing?" questioned Zeb.

"Invisi-thing," said Julian flatly, not quite comprehending.

"Y'know, the thing where nobody can see you!" said Zeb, trying to clarify.

"What would that do?" asked Julian, "You'd still be overwhelmed up top."

Sabine, who had been quiet for the duration of the mad dash unexpectedly spoke up, "My bombs!" she exclaimed.

"Of course!" said Zeb excitedly.

"I've got a couple on me right now," Sabine said, reaching into her pack, "If you can place them in a few places for maximum chaos, we might be able to get in."

"Consider it done," said Julian, and with that he swiped the explosives and detonator from Sabine and disappeared into nothing.

The heroes sat in silence for a few seconds.

Krol broke the silence, "How will we know when to enter?"

Zeb chortled, "Just wait for the explosions," I suppose.

The crew waited in silence for a few minutes.

Kanan sighed, "This is taking too long, I wonder if we should-,"

A massive rumble from below where they were standing made Kanan eat his words immediately.

The marketplace immediately erupted into chaos.

"Go, now's our chance!" Zeb barked, and the group set off at maximum speed to rescue their captured friend.

* * *

Below the ground the blast from the explosions shook the entire pit, chunks of rock fell from the ceiling of the massive crevice, smashing machinery and halting excavation of the temple.

Immediately groups of heavily armed Pa'uans began to run towards the sources of the explosions, the taskmaster remained behind to keep order amongst the slaves.

Even Ezra could feel the tremors from his place where he was restrained on the table.

The darksider who was moments away from ripping Ezra's life force from his body looked up and snarled.

"You two, stay here, make sure he doesn't try anything, the rest of you follow me," he commanded and he exited the room, flanked by his darkside accomplices.

It was at this point that Ezra realized that his connection to the force was slowly returning.

It was gradual, but it felt like a blindfold was slowly begin taken off and Ezra's senses began to widen.

With that, Ezra reached out into the force with all the strength he could muster in the hopes of finding him.

And with a heave of effort, he felt a familiar comforting presence, just above him.

 _Kanan_.

* * *

As the group of rebels entered the dark tunnel to the pit below, Kanan suddenly let out a gasp.

"Kanan, what's wrong!?" asked Hera frantically.

"It's Ezra!" he exclaimed, "I can sense his presence again!"

"Lead the way," ordered Hera and Kanan took off.

* * *

Ezra immediately felt relief flood through as Kanan sent a reassuring feeling through their bond.

Now that Ezra had his powers back, it was time to put them to good use.

Closing his eyes, he concentrated as hard as he could on one of the Pa'uan goons.

Ezra immediately broke through the weak-minded soldier's mental shields.

"You will attack your comrade," he whispered.

"I will attack my comrade," the soldier monotoned back to Ezra.

"Wait what?" the soldiers friend asked.

"You will attack him now," Ezra whispered forcefully.

"I will attack him now," the soldier monotoned again and rounded to face his ally.

"What are you doing?" his comrade asked.

His answer came in the reply of a savage blow to the head, which knocked the hapless soldier unconscious.

"You will unbind me, unlock the door and stay in here to guard your comrade," Ezra ordered.

The soldier heeded Ezra's commands and soon the young boy found himself free.

He immediately exited the room and locked the door behind him, just in case the guards came to their senses.

As soon as he finished with that he immediately found all of his supplies in the room adjacent to his short-term prison cell.

Everything was there, including his lightsaber, apparently the darksiders didn't think it was prudent to take it with them.

It didn't matter very much to Ezra though, they underestimated him and thought that once he was beaten he would stay beaten.

Even with the dull ache in his leg, Ezra was determined to prove them otherwise.

* * *

 _A/N: I know I said I'd upload this chapter on Saturday, but I wasn't satisfied with it and so I rewrote bits of it. The finale of this arc will be the next chapter, and it will be longer to make up for the shorter chapters that I've been giving you all recently. I'm not sure when I'll be able to upload next, so I hope this will tide you over for a little while! As always, thanks for reading. Please give me feedback so I can improve!_


	20. Through the Tunnels

The small band of rebels blasted their way through the tunnel at top speed.

"How much longer is this blasted tunnel?!" Zeb growled, "I'm itching to bash some heads!"

"I sense we don't have much further to go," replied Kanan.

"Look! Up ahead!" exclaimed Krol, "There's light!"

Indeed, there was a small speck of light that was quickly enlarging as the group approached.

Zeb's expression quickly brightened, "Ah, finally!" he began to say, but he quickly stopped talking as his expression dropped at the site before the group when they exited the tunnel.

Pa'uans were frantically running around the base, some were attempting to get the slaves under control, some were tending to the wounded, or helping those that had been buried in the rocks, and the rest stood guard, on high alert for more blasts.

One of said guards noticed the group of rebels immediately, and began shouting to his allies.

"Oh Karabast," moaned Zeb.

"Take cover now!" shouted Kanan, as he ignited his lightsaber to block the incoming shots from the very peeved Pa'uans.

A crack sounded through the air and one of the cultists went down hard, with Julian appearing out of thin air as his active camo deactivated. He motioned the group with a wave of his hand, "Come on this way! I'll cover you!" he yelled over the noise of the blaster fire.

Julian was standing in front of another tunnel, laying down murderous fire at the oncoming cultists. Kanan quickly took the initiative.

"Go!" he yelled as he reflected a blaster bolt back to its cultist sender.

While the cultists had numerical superiority, Julian's deadly, staggered, accurate fire and Kanan's practical wall of defense with his lightsaber, alongside the blaster fire from the rebels pushed the guards back into defensive positions.

"What's the plan?" Kanan asked Julian immediately as he reached the cover of the cave.

"Down here is where these cultists are holding Ezra," said Julian.

"Alright, then what are we waiting for?" urged Kanan, "Let's go get him!"

"What about the guards up here?" pointed out Sabine, "They might outflank us if there are more of those cultists down there, and they'll definitely ruin any escaped strategy we might need."

"Fighting in these hallways would be a bloodbath," Zeb pointed out.

"We'll split up then," said Hera, "Some of us will stay here and stave off any more attacks from the cultists, while the rest will head into the tunnels to find Ezra.

"Sabine, Zeb, Lando, and Julian, you all stay here and fend off any attacks. We'll find Ezra quickly and then we're leaving," asserted Kanan.

"Let's go then," Krol urged, and the two groups separated.

* * *

Ezra silently crept through the underground tunnels as the sounds of distant blaster fire raged on somewhere unknown to him. So far, he had not encountered any more guards.

 _Kanan and the others might have drawn them all away if they're here,_ he thought to himself as he silently moved through the tunnels.

A chill went up Ezra's spine as the familiar presence of the force whispered to him. It sounded like a warning.

Whirling around, Ezra activated his reacquired lightsaber and searched for any immediate threats. When he found none, a confused look came over his face.

"What's going on?" he murmured, confused at the seemingly empty warning.

Then feelings of distress, surprise, and fear swept through his bond with Kanan.

Ezra's eyes widened, "Kanan!" he gasped, and he took off to help his clearly in trouble master.

* * *

"I'm beginning to hate tunnels," Krol sighed.

Kanan had to agree with the Pa'uan; the sheer scale and size of this place was astonishing, he very much doubted they had seen even _half_ of it all.

"There's the light at the end of the tunnel," Hera observed.

Passing the threshold once more, the small band of heroes found themselves inside yet another large, hangar sized room. Half of the room was several yards deeper than the other half. Inside the pit was a large horde of metallic war droids.

Standing near the droids, were two Pa'uans, both dressed in black uniforms.

"Welcome Rebels," said the one on the right. Both of the Pa'uans pulled out lightsabers.

"We've been expecting you," he stated, as they both activated their lightsabers, the red light casting a glow over the war droids.

Kanan in turn activated his own lightsaber and took a defensive stance, his back to Hera and Krol.

Kanan didn't know the extent of these two's skills, but he did know one thing; they were outgunned. He cursed himself internally, Julian clearly knew hand to hand combat the best out of all of them, and Zeb's Bo-Rifle could be handy against a lightsaber, Hera was more of a pilot then a fighter, and he doubted Krol would be very much use either.

Then an idea popped into his head.

"Krol, Hera, run up the tunnel and bring Julian and Zeb down here, there more suited to this kind of fighting!" he ordered.

"They will not be able to save you, Jedi," the Pa'uan on the right sneered, "Not like they will get the chance to anyway."

"Kanan," Hera suddenly breathed, panic clearly evident in her voice.

Kanan turned around and all of his confidence quickly dissolved.

Hera was standing perfectly still, both her arms raised in surrender.

Krol was aiming his blaster at her.

As soon as Krol saw Kanan, he gave a chuckle.

"Terribly sorry Master Jedi, but you will not be leaving this place any time soon."

* * *

An explosion blew another group of guards back.

"How many of these guys are there?" yelled Sabine, exasperated.

"Enough to shoot, that's all we need to know!" retorted Zeb over the noise of the blaster fire.

The small group was desperately holding the entrance of the tunnel ways, luckily the blasts from earlier and the massive caverns makeup provided plenty of cover for the four allies.

Unfortunately, it provided plenty of cover for their enemies as well.

"There might be hundreds of these suckers down here!" exclaimed Lando.

Peeking from his cover, Julian did a quick survey of the battlefield and quickly noticed a detail that they had missed before.

He had forgotten entirely about the Amani slaves.

The group of aliens were currently still working amongst the firefight. Now however, there were only four guards that had controllers for the collars that was keeping the Amani enslaved.

Seizing the opportunity, he let of two quick bursts fire from his Magnum.

The pistol, while being small, was exceedingly powerful and Julian's aim was true; both guards went down hard.

The sudden death of two of the captors did not go unnoticed by the Amani, who stopped working to look at the corpses of their tormentors.

"Zeb!" shouted Julian, "Hit those two guards by the pyramid!"

"Right!" he shouted back, angling his Bo Rifle, and taking shots.

Both cultist guards went down much like the other two did.

The Amani observed their dead guards in dead silence, their collars were now worthless.

Suddenly, with a roar, the Amani acted as one and charged the Pa'uans.

The four rebels could only watch on as the Pa'uans were ripped apart by their former slaves.

The two groups now stood parallel to each other, watching each other in silence.

Then, the Amani turned and began to walk away, presumably towards the exit.

"Well, that was easy enough I suppose," said Lando nervously, eyeing the Amani warily.

* * *

"How could you do this Krol?" pleaded Hera.

"Well, it's a simple little story, my dear Hera," he replied, "Master Jarrus, you must remember a little encounter with someone called the Grand Inquisitor, do you not?"

Kanan paused for a second, gritting his teeth and grimacing, "You knew him, didn't you?" Kanan answered his question with one of his own.

"Knew him? Ha!" Krol laughed, "He was my _brother_!" he snarled.

"I killed him in self-defense you must realize," Kanan began to reason, but Krol cut him off.

"I am well aware of the circumstances of his death, and as a matter face I am _glad_ he's gone, stupid fool and his devotion to Palpatine."

Kanan looked surprised, "What are you talking about?"

"Get on with it Krol," growled one of the black uniformed cultists.

"My dear brother was taken from our family at a ripe young age to become a Jedi," Krol began, "He flourished in his role, eventually becoming one of the temple guards, a very esteemed position might I add. At the end of the clone wars, he disappeared and turned to the darkside and threw his lot in with Palpatine."

"I watched as stories of his exploits flooded in, as world after world fell to the Empire, and my hatred for the Empire grew and grew as Palpatine held all the power and reserved all of it for himself," he seethed.

"It was at this moment that I discovered this little cult here. By this point, I had become quite wealthy, I happen to own the chain store and brand that hides this magnificent cave, and I offered my services to them. And low and behold, look where I am now, head of this little cult," he said proudly.

"With my money and influence, and their aptitude in the darkside, we discovered more portions of this cave, including the army of ancient Sith war droids and the factories that created them. In addition to the superweapon in the pyramid, we now had the forces needed to destroy the Empire and create a new Sith Empire in its place!"

"What's the matter? Is the Empire not evil and tyrannical enough for you?" said Kanan, the insult not subtle in the slightest.

One of Krols companions answered this time, "One time, long ago, the ancient Sith fielded armies of darksiders. They were proud, feared, and respected warriors, not like the pathetic plastic soldiers of this new empire. Once the dark side ripped through the galaxy, a pulsating riptide of rage and passion as it's servants fed off of its raw power! Now it's but a simple foreboding hum in the background," the black uniformed darksider said with a note of sadness in his voice.

"The darkside does not rule this galaxy, Palpatine does," Krols other companion added in.

"You're all insane!" Hera exclaimed.

"Not insane, ambitious," Krol quipped with an evil smile, "No less insane then you after all, no? We have quite similar goals; our endgames are just different."

"We are nothing like you," Hera said indignantly.

"You're right, because we will be successful!" said Krol in an insultingly cheery voice.

"You can't hope to beat the Empire all in one go," Kanan pointed out.

Krol shrugged, "Why not? This weapon could knock entire fleets in a single shot, and these droids could very easily overrun any Imperial world. All we need to do is kill the Emperor after all. Cut the head off the snake, and the body will wither and die."

* * *

Ezra rounded another corner and immediately slid to a halt.

In front of him was a big room, with several entrances.

And standing in front of one of them was the two darksiders, Hera, Kanan, and Krol.

Quickly, he slinked to the side of the entrance he had just come through and observed the situation.

Kanan was facing off against the two darksiders, while Hera was standing completely still as Krol aimed a blaster at her.

Ezra grit his teeth. Another betrayal? The wound from Senator Trayvis's backstabbing still stung a little bit, and now here they were again, with a knife in their back. How many more of their allies would turn against them?

Ezra strained to hear the conversation they were having, making sure to keep himself hidden.

"Why are you doing this?" he heard Kanan ask Krol.

Krol snorted, "Oh, the usual reasons, revenge for my brother, power, glory, money."

"Now, you will come with us and we will begin the ritual with your lowly Padawan and soon our army will have its fuel," said Krol as he began to prod Hera forward, "Master Jarrus, I must ask that you cooperate with us, attempting to take the living force out of a person is a delicate process and having your full cooperation will make things so much easier."

"Don't count on it," Kanan growled.

Krol raised an eyebrow, "Oh, really? And what if I told you that if you don't comply then your lady friend here will die?"

"So that's why you haven't killed her yet," said Kanan, realization dawning on his face.

"Don't do what he says Kanan, they were going to kill me anyway," said Hera firmly.

"I won't do it," said Kanan firmly.

Krol looked back and forth and growled, "How _unreasonable_ , I have made you a very good deal and you refuse it! It's not like the procedure would actually _kill_ you!" Krol sighed and then aimed his blaster at Hera again, "Looks like we will have to do things the hard way then I suppose," he said sadly, as Hera's eyes filled with dread.

Ezra's heart dropped as he began to panic, he had to do _something_!

Without thinking, Ezra dashed out into the open room and using all the power he could muster, he threw a force push at the group just as Krol pulled the trigger on his blaster.

The force knocked all of them down, Krol's shot going wild and missing it's intended target.

Kanan was the first to recover.

"Ezra!" he shouted, relived, but also worried.

It was at this point the others recovered.

The two darksiders activated their lightsabers, and Ezra and Kanan followed suit.

Krol crawled towards his discarded blaster, however the second his fingers closed around it, Hera blasted him with the stun setting on her blaster pistol.

Noticing that Krol was out of the picture, Kanan turned and pointed towards where they came from, "Hera! Run and get the others, now!"

She silently affirmed his command and beelined up the tunnel.

* * *

"How many of these guys do you think there were?" Zeb asked, nudging a downed cultist guard with his foot.

"I don't know," shrugged Sabine, "There might be more, so we should stay on guard."

Suddenly, they heard rapidly pattering footsteps coming from the tunnel where Kanan, Hera, and Krol had gone in.

"Think that's more of them?" asked Zeb.

"I hope not," Sabine said with a hint of worry in her voice as they all aimed their respective weapons at the entrance to the cave.

The footsteps got louder and louder until Hera appeared.

"Hera? Where's Kanan and Krol?" asked Julian.

"And where's Ezra?" Sabine pried.

Hera stopped for breath, "Their both down there fighting two darksiders, Krol betrayed us, we need to get down there and help, stat!"

"Darksiders?" asked Lando fearfully.

"Yes, darksiders," Zeb snapped, grabbing his arm, and pushing him towards the entrance of the cave, "Get moving!"

"This deal keeps getting worse all the time!" Lando complained as he followed the rest of the Ghost crew into the tunnel.

* * *

Ezra quickly dodged a strike from one of the darksiders that would have taken off his arm, as Kanan parried another strike.

While both were fighting furiously and to the extent of their abilities, in the long run it wouldn't make a difference. While the two darksiders were not true Sith Lord or even Inquisitors, they were still a threat. And with Ezra's injured leg, and his little training, it was clear that Kanan was going to have to take the brunt of their assaults.

On the plus side though, the darksiders were being cautious, killing Ezra and Kanan would be counterintuitive to their cause.

Neither Jedi noticed that Krol had recovered from Hera's stun blast and was beginning to make his way down to where the Sith war droids were.

Things suddenly went south for the Jedi. Ezra blocked a particularly hard strike from one of the darksiders, but it put him off balance. The darksider took advantage of his momentary weakness and lashed his leg out violently, hitting him in the stomach and knocking him back from the fight momentarily.

Then both darksiders turned their full attention to Kanan and lunged both their sabers down into a saber lock with the outnumbered Jedi.

Kanan struggled to hold both blades at bay, as they both began to push down with increasing force.

It was at this moment several shots were heard and the rest of the rebels came running out of the tunnel in disorderly fashion.

Julian quickly threw himself at the darksider that he had fought in the art gallery, catching him by surprise and knocking him into the pit where the droids were.

Now freed from his saber lock, Kanan began to fight the remaining darksider again as Ezra and the others rushed forward to help.

They stopped for a moment as they heard maniacal laughter.

Krol was standing in front of one of the droids, with a large grin on his face, "These droids may not be fully powered up, but they will certainly be enough to take care of you!" he exclaimed, pushing a button on the metal monstrosity.

The machine shivered to life, its eyes glowing a red color and its weapons activating.

"Ezra! Help Kanan!" Hera ordered.

Ezra nodded quickly and ran off to help his embattled master.

"Ok gang," Hera said, steeling her nerves, "Let's take this thing down."

* * *

Julian grappled with the darksider that he fought earlier.

Dodging a swing from his blade, Julian delivered a punch to the dark robed figure and then withdrew to a distance.

Julian was about to charge him again, when suddenly he heard shouting and rapid blaster fire from above.

The Pa'uan he was facing off against curled his lip into a sneer, "Your friends are doomed, as are you, armored man."

Julian shook his head, he needed to get this fight over and done with quickly, not just to help his allies, but also to fulfill his secondary mission.

"I'd like to see you try," he replied coolly, then his active camo turned on and the spartan disappeared from sight.

The Pa'uan laughed, "I don't need my eyes to see you!"

He felt through the force, to show him where his allusive enemy was, and found nothing.

His face contorted in frustration, and he felt for the armored foe again. He could feel his other darkside compatriot, Krol, and he could even feel the rebels.

But there was no force signature for the Spartan.

"What are you!" he shouted at nothing, panicking.

A savage blow to the back of the head was his only reply and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

The Spartan appeared over his unmoving body, "That's classified," Julian replied to the incapacitated darksider.

Working quickly, Julian tied up the Pa'uan and gagged him. Then he put an active camo projector and a UNSC beacon on his unconscious foe.

There had been a reason Julian had not killed his Pa'uan foe outright earlier at the art gallery. UNSC high command had wanted a live force wielder, and Julian had decided that this Pa'uan was the perfect candidate.

He moved the body aside, ONI would pick it up later, and he jumped back up into the fight.

* * *

The war droid finally collapsed, the amount of sustained blaster fire it took from the rebels finally putting it out of commission. Elsewhere, Kanan and Ezra were still fighting the darksider.

Krol growled in frustration, his war droids were simply too weak to fight off the enemy in their low powered state.

Time to abandon ship.

He quickly activated another one of the towering droids and shouted at his Sith ally, "Come on! This is a lost cause!"

The darksider quickly force pushed the two Jedi back and ran after Krol, who was retreating down yet another tunnel.

The war droid approached the group, its weapons beginning to hum.

"These things aren't so tough," said Sabine.

Before any of them could begin firing at it however, Julian blaster up out of the pit and towards the droid, a blue glowing ball in his hand.

The armored warrior landed on the droid and slammed the blue ball into its midsection, then quickly jumping off again as the droid exploded in a blue flash of light.

"Come on, we can't let him get away!" exclaimed Kanan and the group made after the traitorous Krol.

* * *

The tunnel Krol led them down eventually opened up into light, a secret passage way through yet another store.

Krol was nowhere in sight.

But what was in sight, was an Imperial Star Destroyer, sitting high in the sky as TIE fighters swarmed the air space.

"The Empire? Why are they here?" exclaimed Lando.

"And where did Krol go?" asked Ezra.

Kanan shook his head, "It doesn't matter, we need to leave, now!"

As if on cue, the Ghost appeared overhead.

Hera put her mouth to her wrist comm, "Chopper, we're down here!"

The little droid had clearly taken it upon himself to fly the Ghost around in search of his crewmates.

The Ghost landed quickly, and the group hopped on, eager to escape the Imperials.

* * *

As soon as the Ghost was in the air, Hera contacted Phoenix squad.

"Sato, stay away from Utapau! This place is a bust," she said as she avoided a shot from a TIE fighter.

"Copy that Captain Syndulla," we will stay clear, Commander Sato responded as the transmission cut.

"Hyperspace now Chopper!" she yelled.

The stars began to twist and contort into the familiar white lines as the Ghost blasted away from the dark side infested planet, escaping danger once more.

* * *

 _A/N: I'm finally back!_


	21. Old Relics

It was a windy day in Washington.

A flag with the Eagle insignia of the UNSC blew in the wind, its fabric rippling in waves.

The gust of wind might have been rather loud, but hearing such a thing would be impossible over the excited roar of the crowd.

Today was Earth's version of Veterans day, and the UNSC had gone all out this year.

The large crowd of civilians stood around an old street as hundreds of soldiers marched forward in perfect formation. Various weapons and vehicles, like the new Scorpion 2 tanks and warthogs drove forward slowly, following the infantry. The crowd showered them with thunderous applause as a band played a rousing marching tune.

But the real treat were the men that followed.

A collective gasp was heard as older men dressed in the old green uniforms of the marines during the Human-Covenant war marched on to the street. They obviously participants in the war.

The applause quickly became louder as the crowd cheered the old heroes of a bygone war.

Above all the festivities, Admiral Runion watched as the old vets began to interact with the crowd.

Smiling to himself and turned away from the window of the building he was currently told to be occupying.

The trip back to Earth had been a long one for certain, and as much as he loved Earth, Runion was anxious to get back to his fleet in Imperial territory. It just didn't feel right being away from his task.

Still, High Com had called him back for a reason, and it wasn't Runions place to question them in this case.

The door opened, and a soldier poked his head in, "Sir, I have orders to escort you to the meeting room."

 _Meeting room huh? Who the hell am I meeting that they don't even bother telling me I'm meeting someone?_ Runion pondered.

He motioned to the soldier, "Lead the way."

Walking deeper into the old building the soldier carded a door open and Runion walked through.

Assembled around an old wooden table that looked like it was older than him, the Strategos and the Polemarch and a few other officers.

Polemarch Loukes gestured towards him, "Admiral, good to see you again from that other galaxy."

Runion nodded, "And it's good to be back here on Earth sir. Sir, might I request why I am here?"

"You're here to discuss tactics, Admiral, since you are going to be the main commandant behind this mission."

Runion quickly turned to the source of the new voice on his right and his jaw nearly dropped out of his head.

Standing before him, almost out of the pages of a history book, stood Lord Hood, commander of the UNSC forces during the Human-Covenant war.

Forcing his astonishment down, Runion quickly snapped a salute to the war hero.

"Sir, it's an honor to meet you," he said.

Hood chuckled lightly, "At ease son, I suppose you see why we had to keep this meeting a secret."

"Yes sir," Runion replied hastily, still shocked of the appearance of the dead old war veteran.

He remembered the day that Hood's death had been announced, back when he was much younger. It had been a day of mourning for the prickly old war hero.

Apparently, it had all been a ruse.

As if reading his thoughts, Polemarch Loukes began to explain, "Hood is a part of a program to keep old heroes of the Human-Covenant war alive, in case we need them in the future. Project Resurrection it's called.

Still shaken, Runion nodded and sat down, his mind now moving at a million miles an hour.

"Firstly, seeing as how you are already familiar with our military strength and tactics, an examination of the data that we have gathered from the Empire on its military and tactics is necessary," said Loukes.

A holoprojector lit up in the center of the table and a white armored man appeared.

"This is an Imperial Stormtrooper," Loukes stated, "These are the main body of soldiers that our Marines and Army infantry will be fighting.

"They're piss-poor excuses for soldiers," Hood stated bluntly.

Loukes grinned, "Well that's one way of putting it I suppose."

A Strategos took up the mantle of explaining, "These soldiers are of dubious quality, they seem to receive adequate training, but their moral is astonishingly low."

"Why is that?" quizzed Runion.

"They're expendable," Hood grunted.

Loukes nodded, "That is true, their armor is not very protective, especially against prolonged or heavy weapons fire. It can take at least 3 shots before they die, however one shot seems to be enough to make them a casualty."

"We know this because of my operative Spartan Julian correct?" Runion asked.

"Indeed, we do, all the other things we've gathered are from ONI operatives," said Loukes.

"We've inserted a couple ONI agents into the Storm Trooper training academies, training is certainly good enough to make professional soldiers, but the officers themselves are another story."

"Infighting?" Runion guessed.

"Somewhat, officers and soldiers are encouraged to stamp each other out to ascend the ranks," said Loukes.

"And when they get to the top, the officers have a habit of disappearing after a failure," said Hood, "The top brass is overly cautious, and more than willing to stab each other in the back to cover a mistake. It seems that failure is rewarded with death."

"And the bottom ranks are cannon fodder," Runion said.

"The top officers also have a problem with being completely incompetent as well, promotions are not always based on merit, but rather loyalty and favorability," the Strategos said.

"What a lovely place," said Runion with a brow raised.

"That's not even the worst part," said one of the Strategos.

"The type of warfare they use is based on intimidation of local populations, and throwing men and resources at rebellions. Take for instance their most powerful tank."

An image of a large, four-legged tank was projected into the air.

"Very intimidating, no?" said Loukes.

"Certainly," said Runion.

"It quite heavily armored, only our own Grizzly tanks, anti-tank artillery, and air attacks will be able to take it down quickly, at least in a slugfest. Its main cannon could probably gut a Scorpion in one or two shots."

Runion frowned, "So what's the drawback then?"

"I'll light up the weapon's systems now," said Loukes.

Four tubular pipes attached to the "head" of the tank lit up in red.

Runion's eyes widened, "That's it? Nothing on the side or back? It can't be, there's no way that it can turn fast enough to combat an enemy from behind!"

"You'd better believe it Admiral," said Loukes.

"Might I explain its other weakness?" a disembodied voice suddenly spoke.

"Go ahead Keyes," Hood said.

The AI appeared and highlighted the knee of the walker tank and its neck.

"This walker has several structural issues," the AI began, "It's main armor is incredibly strong and near impervious to damage, but here in its neck joint, the armor is inadequate. A rocket will quickly destroy the main control center and offensive means of the tank."

"It's also weak here, in its knee joint, sustained fire will dislocate the knee itself and topple the walker over. It is very easy to knock off balance and could potentially tripped up by cables and other objects," the AI finished.

Runion sat back, running his hand over his chin thoughtfully, "Is it like this for all their equipment?"

"Pretty much," said the Strategos.

"AT-ST; high firepower, but thinly armored and easy to knock off balance," Keyes continued as more schematics appeared on the holo, "TIE fighter; high maneuverability and agility, but incredibly low armor and almost no life support whatsoever."

"What about those Star Destroyers I keep hearing about?" Runion asked.

"Take a look for yourself, the highlighted section is the command tower."

Runion examined the triangular shaped ship, "It looks like the old nuclear submarines with its central structure," he mused. "A well-placed shot from a MAC cannon could rip that entire command section clean off I bet."

"Correct. This ship is deadly against smaller vessels, like frigates, destroyers, and cruisers, but against a Capital ship of the line, like our Marathons, a well-placed shot could rip it apart."

Runion leaned back in his chair slightly, "So, our enemy may have more weaknesses than we originally thought."

"Everything is designed for intimidation purposes, to spread fear and submission," said Loukes, "Not practicality. Against civilian uprisings and small rebel cell activity, which is mostly what the Empire deals with, it's quite effective. Up against a real military force that can nearly match its industrial and military power, I can't see them doing very well, the only advantage they have is numbers."

"Don't get cocky Loukes," Hood warned, "Better equipment and soldiers don't guarantee victory. In World War Two, every German that fell took seven Soviets with him, and that war ended with a bullet in Hitler's head."

"You're old enough to remember the Second World War?" asked Keyes, the AI glowing slightly brighter with mirth.

Chuckles rang out in the room, and even Hood had a small smile as he shook his head.

"Just because you're an AI doesn't mean you aren't old either, Jacob," replied Hood.

"Back to our original topic," said Loukes, steering the conversation back on course, "This assault will be the single largest attack in all of human history, and you, Runion are going to be at the head of it, do you think you can handle it?"

"Absolutely sir," affirmed Runion.

"Good, we are going to spend a week discussing the plans with all of our commanders, several will be from Resurrection. The logistics will be a nightmare to deal with, so we'll have to begin assembling the ships and supplies over the course of the next few months. Our soldiers will begin war games and simulations in another month as well."

"What commanders will you be bringing out?" asked Runion.

"Just a few, one happens to go by the name of Cole," said Loukes casually.

Runions gaped at him, "Cole? He's alive?!"

"We found him and his ship floating near the remains of one of our colony worlds, apparently he made a slip space jump after the fight at Psi Serpentis, the jump saved his crew, but it tore their ship apart and left it crippled, we found him and his crew in cryo."

"Next thing you know, you'll be telling me the Master Chief is right around the corner," Runion said, amazed.

"We haven't found him, unfortunately."

Runion stood up, "Well then gentlemen, I do believe you have sufficiently blown my mind enough today, I'll relay the plans back to the fleet in the Empire's galaxy."

"Very good Admiral, dismissed," said Loukes.

Runion saluted and left the room.

* * *

 _A/N: So I suppose I ought to explain this ridiculous mess of universes I've melded together. Naturally, the Star Wars universe is set during Season 2 of Rebels, as you saw during the alternate version of Brothers of the Broken Horn. The Halo universe is a bit more complicated. The events of Halo 4 never took place and neither did the events of Halo 5 or Halo Wars 2. The reason I did this is to give myself some more breathing room for major characters and events. Also because Halo 5's story kinda sucked, though Halo 4 had the single best ending out of all the Halo games. The scene with Cortana sacrificing herself to save Chief and then the interaction between Lasky and Chief was astonishingly good. There are also a few characters that died in the canon of Halo that might be coming back._

 _Another thing I've been wanting to point out is how ridiculously ineffective the Empire's military is. I mean the vehicles they have are really cool and all, but things like the AT-AT are pretty impractical from a military standpoint, all you gotta do is get underneath it or behind it and boom, what's it gonna do? And don't even get me STARTED on the Storm troopers aiming abilities. People like to blame Filoni for the poor quality of the soldiers, but I mean they got beat by literal teddy bears with sticks during episode six and I could not count the number of times Han, Chewie, Luke, and Leia could have been shot on the OG Death Star. At least he's sticking to the canon, right?_

 _Anyways, I've been super busy lately, so I apologize for the constant slow updates. Expect another chapter over the weekend._

 _Thanks for the feedback from the reviewers by the way, I've taken a lot of it to heart and even ended up adjusting a couple things with this story._

 _Anyways, long note over, thanks again!_


	22. Loose Ends

The Ghost slipped out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere.

"Alright," said Kanan, "What now?"

"I've already let the fleet know about our situation," said Hera, "I guess we have to start over again."

"We had such high hopes for Utapau too," sighed Sabine.

"So, you folks are looking for a base, huh?" said Lando, a sly smile worming its way onto his mustached face.

The crew turned to look at him, "Oh no, this can't possibly be good," groaned Zeb.

"Well, since you pretty much dragged me into that mess back on Utapau, I happen to no longer have a ship," Lando leaned against the wall of the cockpit, "So you owe me a favor."

"No way!" exclaimed Ezra, "That was not our fault."

"Even if it isn't directly your fault, you are still the reason I don't have a ship," Lando pointed out.

Hera crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "Alright, what do you want Lando?"

"Y'know, because we've done such great business in the past, I'll make a deal with you, you deliver me to a specific planet, and I'll help you gain a base for a rebellion."

"Get to the catch already, there's always a catch," Zeb said.

"A very wealthy man by the name of Alec Raynor just recently passed on from this world to the next," Lando said, "His property has been divided amongst his three sons, and one of them has caught my eye."

Lando pulled out a mini projector from his pocket and an image of a domed structure with a spire running downwards appeared, "This is Cloud City, floating in the vicinity of Bespin" said Lando, "It was one of Alec's properties, now his son, Dominic owns it."

"What do you want from Cloud City," asked Julian.

"I don't want anything from it, I want _it_ ," said Lando, "Dominic is a corrupt, greedy son of a gun," Lando leaned forward a bit, "And he has quite the gambling problem."

"What did I say?! There's always a catch!" exclaimed Zeb.

"Last time I visited the place, Dominic challenged me to a game of sabacc, apparently my reputation precedes me," Lando explained with a grin, "You are going to help me win."

"How could we possibly do that?" asked Kanan.

"Do those force powers of yours let you know when someone's lying?" asked Lando.

"Yes, they do," Kanan sighed, "I'm not helping you cheat to win, how do you even know he's going to bet his ownership of the city anyways?"

"Dominic can't resist a huge prize, besides the guy does nothing but cheat anyways. He also owns the Wheel and he rigged all the machines to help out people he likes and himself!" said Lando, "Think of it as, getting a taste of his own medicine."

"And if you win this match?" Julian asked.

"You have impunity to use one of the storage levels of the city for your rebellion," Lando affirmed.

"What about the Imperials?" Julian pressed.

Lando waved him off, "Easy, Cloud City is a tibanna haven, the Empire gets cheap fuel from Cloud City, and it leaves the city with a high amount of autonomy. You rebels might as well take advantage of that, plus I might be able to get you hooked up with some nice fuel! Come on, waddya say?"

"Sounds pretty good to me," shrugged Julian.

"I don't like it," said Kanan.

"Neither do I!" Ezra seconded.

"It's because of the cheating thing isn't it, come on Jarrus, this can't be the most morally dubious thing you've done," scoffed Julian.

Kanan looked like he wanted to retort, but instead closed his mouth and shook his head.

"Kanan, I know you don't like it, but we really do need a base," said Hera, giving him a look.

"If it makes you feel better, I've been talking to a couple of worker's unions on Cloud City, and they absolutely hate him, the citizens don't like him much either and he's pretty much forced his will on them," Lando offered, with an uncharacteristic sympathy in his voice.

Kanan sighed, "Fine. Fine! We'll help," he gave Lando a pointed look, "How do I know that you aren't going to be just as bad as this guy?"

Lando's grin didn't falter, "Relax will ya? I'm an entrepreneur, not a dictator."

Hera gave Kanan a small smile, "I think that's the best we'll get out of him, Kanan. Anybody have any objections?"

"Karabast, what else are we gonna do? I'm sick of constantly running all the time, I'm in," said Zeb.

No objections were raised from the crew.

"So, it's settled then," said Hera, "Chopper, set course for Bespin."

The droid warbled in affirmation and the ship tilted and flashed into the mysterious void of faster than light.

* * *

The invisible agent crept through the darkened caverns, careful to avoid squads of white-armored stormtroopers milling about.

He took another turn at a tunnel littered with scorch marks, the apparent site of the firefight that the Spartan and his comrades had stood their ground.

Moving into the room where the last fateful duel had been fought, his tracker slowly coming closer and closer.

The room still had plenty of the strange war droids that he had been briefed on, the Empire had clearly not had the time to move any of the deadly creations and there were plenty of black armored death troopers to guard them.

"ONI actual, this is Predator One, I'm nearing my target," he spoke into his headset in his ODST modelled helmet.

If it weren't for the fact that he was invisible, he probably could've passed for the elite soldiers.

The lack of armor and sophisticated hardware, such as the sound dampener that hushed his voice and footsteps, probably would have given him away though.

" _We copy Predator One, proceed and complete phase one of the operation, then begin phase two immediately. We don't want you in there longer than ten minutes and the other teams have completed their objectives."_

"I copy ONI actual, I've just found the body," said the cloaked agent.

The figure quickly pulled out another noise dampener and turned on his AUG Vision. The world immediately erupted into a cluster of blue lines and hues, each edge of an object getting a blue line. The Imperials were lit up in red and his target had a neutral yellow color outlining its body.

Predator One quickly got out his version of a body bag, and set to work getting the still unconscious Pa'uan into his container.

"ONI actual, how long until this guy wakes up?" he said into the encrypted call to his commander.

" _It will be another hour and ten minutes according to the time frame the Spartan gave us."_

"Got it," muttered Predator One.

It was astonishing really, the Spartan Fives had been trained to knock their opponents out for specific periods of time, in this case the amount of time was approximately six hours. Seeing as his target was nonhuman it was a bit of a risk, but it appeared that the risk would pay off.

Once he had the creature fully packed, he stepped towards the war droids and placed a heavy charge on the old creations leg.

Then he turned and began to swiftly leave the underground region.

Once outside, he rapidly went to his secluded, cloaked booster frame.

"ONI actual, I'm clear," he hissed.

" _Roger that, you are clear to detonate,"_ was the reply.

Nodding to himself, Predator One pressed the button on his wrist and took off at full speed.

The ground rumbled, and the earth shook with the force of it as the cavern and the Imperials inside it disappeared in a flash of explosive power. Predator One looked at his wrist and saw that all of the bombs placed by the Predator teams had detonated.

"Objective neutralized," Predator One reported to his commander.

" _You know our position Predator One, return at once with your cargo."_

Predator One aimed his booster frame in the right direction and took off at full speed towards the waiting Prowler in lower atmosphere.

* * *

After the meeting was over, the various crew members of the crew dispersed. Lando and Julian went off to the cargo hold to discuss the layout of the city, Zeb had gone to his room, grumbling about his Bo Rifle being dirty, and Sabine had disappeared to paint somewhere.

That just left Hera, Kanan, Chopper, and Ezra in the cockpit.

Ezra sulked, "I can't believe we're working with that slime ball again!"

Kanan sighed, "I know that it's a difficult situation Ezra, but if we don't get a new base soon, we are screwed. I don't want to help him cheat either but-,"

"It's not that," Ezra interrupted, "I just don't like the guy, that's all."

Kanan shared a look with Hera for moment, and then a smirk appeared on his face.

"Don't want anyone else flirting with Sabine, do ya?" said Kanan, a wicked grin now twisting his features.

Chopper let out an electronic cackle as Ezra froze.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," said Ezra, his face constricted in a neutral position.

"You mean the constant flirting and pining is just a front?" asked Hera, amused.

Ezra nodded, "She's pretty, but she's just a friend to tease."

"Oh really," said Kanan with a disbelieving eyebrow, "What about that giddy happiness I feel through our bond every time you're talking to her?"

Ezra went beet red as he looked at his master in horror.

"Because when you really think about it-," Kanan said, stepping closer to his embarrassed teenaged Padawan.

"Kanan," said Ezra desperately.

"-I think you _love_ her," Kanan finished, waggling his eyebrows for comic effect.

"Ok, ok, ok!" said Ezra frantically, desperately trying to get him to stop.

"I might like her for real just a little bit," he admitted.

He was met with unimpressed stares.

He sighed, "Ok, I really like her a lot alright? She's smart, beautiful, crafty, _everything_! Of course I don't want a sleemo like Lando flirting with her!"

"Ezra, you know Sabine is perfectly capable of making her own decisions," Hera pointed out.

"I know, Hera," sulked Ezra, "Man, love is hard!"

He turned to face Kanan, "Now I know how you and Hera feel."

Kanan stopped suddenly and looked at his apprentice strangely, "What do Hera and I feel now?"

Ezra red face and awkward expression quickly turned into one of amusement, "Oh, come on you two! Are you really pretending there is nothing going on between you?"

Kanan looked dumbfounded at how quickly the tables had been turned on him as Chopper snickered again in his droid voice.

"Ezra, hun, why don't you go bother Zeb, I think you broke Kanan," said Hera, a ghost of a smile on her face.

"I can't believe you! Man, I should tell Sabine about this! She'd have a field day!" said Ezra excitedly.

Kanan groaned, "Please don't, I already get it enough from Zeb and Chopper, I don't need you two harping on us constantly as well."

At Ezra's mischievous look Kanan decided to threaten him, "You talk about this and I'll tell Sabine how much you love her!"

"Who loves who now?" Sabine asked, walking through the doorway.

"NOBODY!" Kanan and Ezra both shouted at her.

Hera put her hand to her forehead as she silently laughed at the confused expression on Sabines face.

"Oookay then," said Sabine, clearly confused, "I'll just go back to my painting then."

"We'll be there in an hour Sabine," Hera called after her, sensing what her question was.

"Thanks Hera!" her retreating form said.

Chuckling and shaking her head she grabbed Ezra and Kanan by the arm, "Come on you two, we have a little bit of work to do before we arrive.

* * *

The scene was a catastrophe. Smoke billowed out from the once gigantic underground complex on Utapau.

The men and personal stationed in the area were all dead, along with several prisoners that had been caught. In addition to that, the ancient Sith artifacts had been completely obliterated. All that was left of the pyramid was a faint outline of a base and there was nothing to be seen of the war droids.

The Emperor would not be pleased.

But then again, the man mused, he never really was truly happy. And to be quite honest they hadn't really lost anything, seeing as how the war droids had never really been in their position in the first place.

Still, judging by the way several of the garrison commanders had mysteriously vanished, no doubt executed for their failure, Palpatine would very much like to know what had happened.

The blast had been so massive that it had torn a hole into the ceiling of the cave, exposing it to the side of the sinkhole.

His gunship circled around and landed near the opening, and he stepped off gently, letting his stormtroopers swarm around him.

A grey uniformed officer stepped up to him quickly with a salute, "Sir, the site is secure as you ordered."

"Very good, any dangers to report?" he intoned, the question was routine at this point.

"There has been sporadic falling debris, nearly took one of my men out actually. It's probably not a danger right now, but I'd still recommend keeping that helmet on anyway," the officer cautioned.

He nodded. It was good advice.

"Well let's have a look, shall we?" he invited the officer and his Storm troopers forward, and the group descended into the maw of the hole.

* * *

"As you can see, there is no remnant of any bombs or anything at all, we are absolutely certain they used some kind of vaporization bomb, it didn't leave any residue behind."

He nodded, pretending to take interest in what the officer was talking about, but in reality, he had already known this.

The officer couldn't possibly know this, so why belittle him?

In truth, he was observing the walls. The eyes were the most useful tool of the body, especially if you knew not just how to see, but rather _see_.

His inane ability to notice things had certainly helped him out in his life.

So he scanned the walls, hoping to notice clues as the officer droned on about things he already knew.

The bombs that had been set off had been quite effective, creating a strange spider web-like pattern of lines and cracks.

Then he noticed something.

He abruptly stopped walking, making the troopers and the officer immediately come to a halt.

"Sir?" asked the officer questioningly.

He simply turned and walked away, heading for a section of wall.

Realizing he wasn't going to get an answer, he beckoned the troops to follow.

They walked all the way to a specific area of the wall.

He turned to face the officer and asked a simple question.

"Commander, can you tell me what is different with this section of the wall?"

The officer frowned.

"Sir, I'm not sure what you mean."

He chuckled, "Look at the lines commander."

The officer squinted, and a look of confusion passed over his face.

"They're different," he pointed out.

"They certainly are commander, but I'm looking for something a little more specific."

He pointed to a trooper, "Can you tell me what's different?"

The soldier, unaccustomed to being spoken too, paused for a second, then spoke.

"The lines are more horizontal sir," he said, uncertainty clinging to his voice.

"They have a pattern!" said the officer excitedly, then the look of confusion came back, "Wait, why is this significant sir?"

He smiled underneath his face mask, "Because this is not a blast mark, rather it's a language, a very primitive form of the language the first settlers used when they came down here into the caves. The Sith that created these monuments must have driven them out, but the ancient language is still here," he put a hand to the chin of his helmet.

"Yes, it's very interesting sir, but I must inquire as to why this matters," the officer stated flatly.

The man gestured with his arms, "Look around you commander, the walls have been completely destroyed. There is not a single place that has been untouched by the bombs." And it was true, the spider web-like cracks were everywhere, along every wall, the entire floor, and even on what was left of the ceiling.

"Whoever planted those weapons was incredibly thorough, perhaps too thorough," he mused.

"They destroyed everywhere, except for the writing here," the officer realized.

The man clapped a hand on the officer's shoulder, "Which means that something went wrong with the bomb planted here."

"You don't think the bomb went off?" the officer asked.

"Oh no," he said shaking his head, "It very much went off, but it did not go off correctly. The perfectionism of the people that detonated it is quite admirable, but right now it a weakness to be exploited."

He stepped back from the group, "Have your men search under the rubble on the floor around this area."

The men got to work, clearing the area around the untouched wall.

It took extra effort, effort that would not have normally been expelled, but eventually something was found.

A three by two-inch piece of metal with no visible markings on it. It had very clearly once been the casing of a bomb.

The man examined it and turned to face the officer.

"Not very much too look at is it?" he asked.

"I suppose not sir," was the curt reply.

"Perhaps not to us, but to a bomb expert it almost certainly will be.

He beckoned to a trooper with orange markings and handed the piece to him.

After studying it for a minute, he nodded and spoke, "I've seen this type of casing before. See the burn marks on the other side? It's a type of compression bomb. The metal plating here surrounds the bomb core that's detonated, and it's designed to resist the initial blast of the weapon. This in turn forces the blast inward where the atoms pick up speed. Eventually it erupts outwards in a massive blast like a miniature supernova. It melts right through the casing and vaporizes anything in its path. Conventional bombs have a habit of leaving things behind like fragments, this weapon leaves no such thing behind."

"Whoever planted these weapons wanted to leave no trace of their presence behind," the man said thoughtfully, "Please, tell me why this piece of the bomb exists still."

"It's a very delicate weapon sir," the bomb expert said, "If the core is knocked out of place in the center of the bomb, it could make the explosion favor one side of the bomb, which is what happened here and why there is still a casing."

"Interesting," he said, eyeing the officers flabbergasted expression.

"You got all this because of some ancient dead cave language?" he asked, befuddled.

He chuckled again, "There are many things you can learn from ancient cultures, commander."

The man took the casing back from the bomb expert and lifted the faceplate of his helmet up.

The light from Utapua's sun kissed his blue tinted flesh as his red eyes scanned the small, seemingly insignificant metal.

"As a matter of fact commander, that ancient dead cave language has delivered us our first piece to the puzzle," said Grand Admiral Thrawn, his eyes gleaming in the sunlight.

* * *

 _A/N: This chapter is like an Oreo, two hard sections at the beginning and end and a soft, fluffy center. The ending was incredibly fun to write, and I spent a little extra time making sure it was good. I can't wait to read your reactions._


	23. Baron of the Sky

"There it is," Lando announced, "Cloud City."

After coming out of hyperspace near the gas giant of Bespin, the Ghost had descended into the swirling vortex of orange tinted clouds. After a few moments of flying, a massive silver superstructure appeared in the window of the cockpit.

" _Unidentified ship, state your business here_ ," a voice sounded out through the Ghost's commlink.

The source of the transmission was two red ships that had begun to tail the Ghost.

"See? What did I tell you? Normally it would be the Empire doing this, not private security," said Lando to Hera, a smirk of satisfaction lighting up his face.

"Just get us through this," she said with a sigh.

"Sure thing Captain," Lando pressed a button on the panel, "Why hello there! I am Lando Calrissian and this ship here is called the Starbird. I'm here to take a challenge offered by your current ruler."

" _Very well then Lando Calrissian, please provide access codes_ ," the security pilot ordered.

Lando frowned, "He didn't give me any blasted security codes! Last time I didn't need any to get in!"

" _Security has been increased in the past month due to reports of treasonous activity against Baron Raynor_ ," the security person said.

"I wonder why," Lando muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"You tell Dominic that I'm here and I wish to take his challenge," Landon retorted.

" _Sir, that is not possible at the moment_ -,"

"Or you could send us back and deny Baron Raynor his challenge that he's been itching to go through with for months and have your head on a platter, your choice," said Lando, making sure his shrug was pronounced.

Silence ensued for a minute as the Ghost continued its trajectory towards Cloud City.

"I don't like this," said Kanan, his arms folded.

"They're taking too long," Hera murmured.

"Probably just getting it cleared," said Lando, though he looked far less confident than before.

" _Starbird, you are clear to land at platform 19-A, we will escort you there_."

"Thank you very much!" replied Lando, switching off the comm, "See what did I tell you? No problem at all!"

The Ghost crew all gave him a death glare.

* * *

The rest of the flight was smooth, but once landed, the Ghost crew found that they were alone on the platform. To top it all off, the only entrance to the city from their location was locked off.

They had been waiting for thirty minutes and still nobody came to unlock the entrance door, or even greet them.

"They are certainly taking their sweet time, aren't they?" noted Julian, adjusting the grip on his assault rifle from his position at the bottom of the ramp for the millionth time.

With that being said, the door suddenly opened, and a man flanked by five blue uniformed guards slinked outwards.

"Well never mind then," he sighed as Lando grinned at the approaching man.

"Lando Calrissian!" exclaimed the approaching man.

"Dominic Raynor!" replied Lando.

"I was beginning to worry that you had flaked on me Calrissian," Barron Raynor said, a bright smile on his face.

"Does my reputation not proceed me? I never back down from a sabacc challenge, especially one as grandeur as yours," said Lando in mock hurt.

Dominic simply nodded, then looked beyond Lando at the Ghost crew, "And who are these people?"

"Oh, just a few acquaintances I picked up along the way," Lando replied casually.

"I must apologize for the heightened security, there have been a few recent concerns regarding my security and rightful rule," Dominic explained

Lando snorted, "Well, as long as we're here now I suppose, it doesn't matter."

"Come, before I take all of your prized possessions in this game of ours, let me at least give you a tour, bring some of your acquaintances along!" he beckoned, turning towards the door.

"Ezra, Sabine, Chopper, and Julian, you four stay back with the ship," Hera ordered.

"What?" Sabine asked.

"Hey, no fair!" protested Ezra.

"You two are magnets for trouble and after what happened on Utapau, I think you two need a break," said Hera, smirking.

She pointed at Julian, "Keep these two out of trouble," she said.

He gave a mock salute, "Can do Captain."

Zeb roughly ruffled Ezra's hair, "Try not to make a fool of yourself in front of Sabine," he teased, as Ezra shoved his hand away with a frown.

"We'll be back soon, watch the ship," said Kanan as he followed Lando and Dominic.

The door closed behind him and the rest of the group.

"Well, I'm gonna go run a diagnostic with Chopper," Sabine announced and walked up the ramp, the grumbling orange droid in tow.

Ezra sighed and leaned back on the ramp, "Well, this stinks," he announced.

"Come on, it's not that bad," Julian countered, "We get a little bit of relaxation before another big fight."

"It's not really that Julian," said Ezra, "I really want to check this place out! I haven't seen anything like here before."

"You didn't see very much of the galaxy before you met the Ghost crew, did you?" guessed Julian.

"No, I never left Lothal. My parents were planning on a trip somewhere, but they got taken before we could even plan," said Ezra, pulling up his knees to his body, eyes downcast.

Julian felt a pull at his heartstrings, this kid didn't deserve the life he had been pinned with.

 _And he certainly didn't deserve the life that he'll be forced to live in the coming war_ , Julian thought, a pang of regret filtering through his mind.

The UNSC's war with the Empire would be just as much of a propaganda war as a conventional war. And that involved ONI.

Julian wasn't stupid, he knew exactly what ONI planned to do with Ezra. The Jedi were apparently still heavily respected and remembered in this galaxy, despite the Imperials best attempts to turn the public against their legacy. According to Kanan, Ezra wasn't a Jedi yet, but his potential was apparently staggering. As the first of the new Jedi to be trained, the kid was a very effective symbol against the Empire, a symbol of rebirth for the Jedi, and the old Republic.

When the war broke out, ONI would make sure that every corner of the galaxy heard of Ezra Bridger and his exploits. Every detail, every relationship, every battle, everything he did would be publicized. ONI had done the same to the Spartans during the war, albeit to a lesser extent so as to hide the true nature of the Spartan program.

But there were no secrets that needed to be kept with the kid, and whether he likes it or not, Ezra would be the symbol for the rebellion. Him and any other Jedi who might pop up in the future. A good symbol could win wars, and Julian had to agree with the method.

But it didn't mean he had to like manipulating the poor kid and his new family.

"Tell you what kid, lets go explore some of the levels this place has," Julian offered.

Ezra's head shot up and he looked at Julian, a huge grin worming its way on his face, "Really?" he asked in disbelief.

"It's better than waiting around here," he shrugged, "I'll take the fall for it too."

"In that case, you better not leave me behind," said Sabine as she walked down the ramp.

"You were supposed to be running diagnostics with Chopper," Julian pointed out.

She shrugged, "Chopper can handle it. I want to see the city."

"A likely story," said Ezra grinning, "She can't stand being away from me for too long," he explained to Julian.

"Not necessarily untrue, but not for the reason you think," Sabine retorted with a smirk.

"Oh yeah, and what might the reason be then?"

"To make sure you don't get in trouble and blasted into a billion bits, duh."

"Me? Get in trouble? Never!" he exclaimed, placing a hand on his heart, "Sabine, you wound me!"

"Please don't start quoting Hondo," groaned Julian, "I got enough of that to last me a lifetime."

Both teens laughed aloud at the armored warrior's consternation.

"Alright so how do we get out of here then?" asked Ezra, "I don't see any other exits."

"That's because you're not thinking creatively," replied Julian. He pointed up at the entrance were the others had disappeared into. "See that ledge? I'll bet you anything that it leads to that massive balcony over there."

"Ok, then how do we get up there?" asked Sabine.

"Like this," he replied as he grabbed both teens like rag dolls and pulled them under his massive arms.

"Not again!" Ezra forced out, before the Spartan pushed off the ground in a huge jump enhanced by his suit.

He deftly landed above the door and dropped the two in a heap on the platform.

Looking at the tangled mess of limbs before him he let out a hearty chuckle.

"C'mon you two, get a room,"

"Next time you do that could you maybe warn us?" said a flustered Sabine, angry and embarrassed.

Ezra just stared ahead blankly, his cheeks tinted pink.

"Now that I know how much it annoys you, I think I'm gonna do it more often now," said Julian.

It did feel nice to have a little fun after being in such a regimented place for so long, it kinda reminded him a little of-

Julian stopped himself. He was not going to be thinking about him, absolutely not.

He beckoned the two of them forward, "Come on, let's see what we can find."

* * *

"Y'know, this Dominic guy doesn't seem that bad," said Zeb.

The remainder of the Ghost crew were currently walking the pristine halls of Cloud City, as Dominic led them along on the basic tour, chatting with Lando all the while.

"I disagree Zeb," Kanan muttered back. He pointed at the people parting way for Dominic and his guards, "See how all these people are parting for Dominic?"

"Yeah, I do," he replied, his brow furrowing.

"Look closely," Kanan ordered.

And so, Zeb did, and noticed a detail he hadn't seen before.

"They're all looking away from him, like they don't want him to notice them," said Zeb, flabbergasted.

"Exactly, I've sensed a lot fear from people since we started walking these hallways, a lot of it is radiating in reaction to him," Kanan explained with a frown.

"I knew this guy was a fake the moment he opened his mouth," said Hera through grit teeth.

"I suppose I oughta work on my interpretation skills eh?" chuckled Zeb, rubbing his neck.

"Happens to the best of us Zeb," said Kanan, "If I didn't have the force I probably would be believing his charm is genuine too."

"I've seen his kind before, they treat you like royalty at first. But if disagree or anger them in one little way, they turn on you," said Hera, as Lando laughed at something Dominic said up ahead.

"We knew he would be bad business when we came in and now our suspicions are confirmed. We'll just have to be careful around him."

Zeb glanced around at the people they were passing, many of them visibly shaken to see the Baron of Cloud City walk by.

"Karabast," he growled under his breath.

Whatever had gotten these people so afraid of the Baron could not be good.

* * *

 _A/N: Who did Julian not want to remember? What did Raynor do to the people of Cloud City? And will the teasing for Ezra and Sabine ever end? Find out next time!_

 _Every time_ _I sit down to write this, I am floored by how much stuff I still have to complete. I'm 50k words in and this story is not even a quarter done. I'll probably finish this fic when I'm 40 lol._


	24. A Culture of Cover Ups

He awoke to a bright white light.

Squinting at the sharp contrast from his earlier, the Pa'uan attempted to move his arms, but found they, alongside his legs and the rest of his body, were tied down to a metal panel.

He snarled at the sheer audacity of his captors. They thought they could keep him, an adept darksider and future Sith Lord down with mere straps!

Baring his teeth, the darksider began to reach out into the force…

…And quickly recoiled as he failed to make contact.

The Pa'uan frowned, perhaps he was just weakened from being unconscious for so long.

So, he tried again, using his anger to grasp out for the darkside, and once again, he found nothing.

His anger began to melt into fear and desperation. All his life, the force had been his companion, the darkside his constant source of power.

He began to struggle against the restraints, claustrophobia beginning to settle in, "WHERE IS IT?!" he screamed, as he failed to connect to the force for a third time.

"Having trouble finding something?" a smooth voice spoke up.

The darksider turned his head at the new arrival, a human male, in some kind of military uniform.

"Rebels," he hissed, "You will get nothing from me!"

The man had a small smile, and it didn't falter at the Pa'uans threat of noncompliance, "You didn't answer my question, friend," he said.

The darksider growled, "The force, you blithering fool, where is it!? What have you done with it and how!?"

The man's infuriating smile never left, "You are in a place where there is no force," he stated, "My name is Armstead by the way."

"I care little for what your name is!" he spat in return, "When the drugs you have given me have worn off, you will be the first that I remove from existence!"

The man, instead of being intimidated, or irritated, laughed.

"My dear friend, the force does not exist here at all. There are no drugs inhibiting your brain," he explained, "Nor am I a rebel."

The Pa'uan froze, his brutish brain trying to process what was just told too him,

He could think of no appropriate reply, so he settled with, "I am not your friend. Release me, now!"

The man shook his head, _still_ smiling, "I'm afraid that is not possible. Even if we were to release you, where would you go? Protecting the people of this galaxy is one of my priorities darksider, and you represent a danger to them. And the people of your galaxy think you are dead, which is by our design."

The Pa'uan could feel beads of sweat working their way down his back, "I am in another galaxy, one devoid of the force?"

The man called Armstead nodded, "Yes, we are another civilization beyond your galaxy, one that is currently actively attempting to destroy or cripple the Empire that now inhabits your galaxy. Before it discovers us."

The Pa'uan hesitated, he didn't think the man was lying, and the way the force was absent felt natural, like the force had never been there, not like it had been taken away if he had been given force inhibitors.

"What do you want with me?" he whispered, closing his eyes.

"Now we are getting somewhere!" Armstead laughed, his friendly demeanor not dropping.

"You are a darksider, you have explicit knowledge of the darkside and its teachings, correct?" the man asked.

"Yes, my master had several Sith Holocrons, the knowledge inside them was invaluable," the Pa'uan said.

"The Empire is led by two Sith Lords, who have a large of amount of dark side inquisitors working for them," he leaned in towards the Pa'uan, "I want to know how the Sith work, and how the dark side works in the hope of defeating it."

The Pa'uan felt his resolve to resist come back in full swing, "Those secrets are not for you! I will die before you get them!"

Armstead simply shook his head, smiling, "Oh you will not be dying anytime soon. I am simply giving you a second chance. We all lose our way sometimes after all. Tell us this information and I will make sure you live out the rest of your life in comfort under our care. If you refuse, then I will be forced to take it from you."

The Pa'uan laughed, "Take it from me? I will not bow down to petty physical torture! I am a darksider? We _feed_ off pain. Even with the force absent, I will not relent!"

Armstead sighed, and his smile suddenly dropped.

"Then I am afraid you have left me no choice," he said softly, pressing a button on his wrist and a contraption descended from a panel in the ceiling, a device that had a long syringe attached to it."

"What is this?" the Pa'uan asked, confused.

"We call it the Rack," he said, moving the device into position.

The devices needle suddenly thrust forward, penetrating his forehead, and the Pa'uan began to feel immense pain.

He screamed in agony as the Rack stretched his mind to the breaking point and began exposing his many memories.

The last thing he saw until his whole world went black was the small, sad smile on Armstead's face.

* * *

"How did it go?" asked Carol Dovington, lone inhabitant of the viewing room onboard the UNSC _Razor's Edge_ , the new mobile headquarters of ONI.

He sighed, "I had to use the Rack."

She shook her head, "Unfortunate, but I assume it was completely necessary," she sighed, "What is the condition of our prisoner?"

"He remembers nothing, in his resistance, his mind was nearly destroyed," Armstead said.

"See too it that he disappears somewhere, I don't want him killed though, Armstead," Dovington ordered.

Armstead gave the Head of ONI a salute, "It will be done."

"If word gets out that we have sanctioned this kind of mind probing, this organization will be dismantled once again, and our secrets will be exposed," she said.

"Like our lie to the Senate about the Imperial core worlds?" Armstead asked.

She snorted, "Yes, the core worlds. I cannot believe those bumbling fools actually believe that their entire galaxy will revolt once our war starts."

"We had to convince them, for the good of mankind," Armstead said, "We knew that the core worlds would be loyal to the Empire."

"We can discuss the ethics of lying to the government later," she said, "How goes our special project for dealing with these problematic worlds?"

"36 percent of the core worlds we identified have been properly mined, Director," said Armstead, "The collision avoidance systems we installed in the warheads has so far seen a 100 percent accuracy rating."

"Good, another problem we won't need to deal with," said Dovington, "Does anyone suspect a thing on our end?"

"At the current moment, no," said Armstead, "We've falsified our reports on our nuclear warhead stockpiles, and the manufacturers of them are properly under our wing."

Dovington sighed, "It was much easier under the old military government. They were willing to turn the occasional blind eye and let ONI act with impunity. The new government is much less forgiving when it comes to our activities."

She turned to face Armstead, "You know you can turn back now Armstead, right? When this war is over, the Hegemon himself will be vying for our arrests and executions. They will do to us what they did to the old ONI. I could get you out now, while you're not as involved."

Armstead shook his head, "I appreciate the offer, old friend, but I know what I signed up for. If doing underhanded things helps save humanity, then I will do them without a second thought."

"I understand Armstead, thank you," she said softly. Her terminal beeped as an incoming message found its way to her.

"A status update," she said simply, as she opened up the terminal and skimmed over the report, doubtlessly from one of her many spies.

Something she read made her freeze in her tracks, something Armstead didn't fail to notice.

"What's wrong now?" he asked.

"It seems our cleanup operation on Utapau didn't quite go as planned; one of our weapons didn't go off correctly and a little bit of bomb casing was discovered and recovered by the Imperials," she said.

"Have we been found out?"

Dovington shook her head, "No we haven't, they have nothing for the moment, the only thing they know is that someone was trying to cover the rebel's tracks, which could be anyone."

"We are going to be more cautious now," he concluded.

"Indeed," said Dovington, "Still, it is an acceptable loss compared to the knowledge you were able to extract from our Pa'uan friend. I'll be sending that information to our scientists and operatives."

"Of course, Director, do you require anything else?" asked Armstead.

"As a matter of fact, I have a new project for you to focus on. A lot of potentially useful political and military personal are being held in several high security prisons, they could be useful to our cause. I would like for you to free them with any means necessary."

"Sticking to using weapons, materials, and operatives from this galaxy?"

"Yes. As for the prisoners themselves I am giving you autonomy for who you go after first." She handed him a datafile. "This will get you started, release the generals, soldiers, and politicians to the Rebellion, but bring the propagandists and hackers back here, they may move prove far more useful here, where they are protected."

"Can do Director," said Armstead saluting.

"Dismissed then," Dovington ordered and she watched his retreating form walk through the door.

* * *

 _A/N: A short chapter, but a rather important one. It seems ONI is up to its old tricks again, eh?_


	25. Casino and Carnival

The room Julian, Ezra, and Sabine were currently beginning to explore was a strange one. It wasn't explicitly off limits seeing as how there was no way to get to it except through maintenance shafts and vents. Of course, with a little coaxing (and with much huffing and pouting from Ezra) getting into the skeleton of Cloud City was quite easy.

"What is this place?" Ezra questioned aloud, the orange and blue lights of the circular chamber reflecting off his deep blue eyes.

A plume of smoke fizzed from the ceiling as Sabine examined a control panel, "Well, the entire room is centered around that point right there," she said, pointing out a circle in the dead center of the rounded platform they were standing on.

Julian snorted, "Could've fooled me."

Sabine gave him a glare, "Well that's what it's telling me!"

Ezra ignored their argument and slowly ascended some stairs to another platform. However, once he reached the top he stopped suddenly.

The force was positively _buzzing_ around him, flowing around him frantically, like a bat out of hell. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Ezra decided to investigate.

As soon as he began to wade into the force, it smashed into him, tearing away his mental barriers with ease. With a gasp of shock, Ezra felt his body fall as a vision overtook his entire being.

 _Smoke swirling around the circular room._

 _The cold mechanical breathing of the Sith Lord Kanan and he had encountered._

 _A young man whose face was blurred and distorted._

 _Flashes of red and blue._

 _All too easy…_

 _Ezra._

 _Ezra!_

 _EZRA!_

 _EZRA!_

Ezra gasped for air as the force pushed him out of the vision and back into reality.

"Ezra! Are you ok?!" he heard a muffled voice say.

Groggily, Ezra slowly began to regain his senses.

He was being shook by someone, two of their hands were on his shoulders.

As his vision came into focus he saw Sabine, her face taking up half his vision.

She had a concerned expression on her face, her mouth slightly open in panic and her eyes searching his face with worry.

He groaned again, trying to shake the last bits of blurriness out of his eyes.

"Ezra?" asked Sabine again, getting more worried with his lack of responses.

 _Oh right, he didn't answer her when she asked if he was ok._

"Man, what a nice sight to wake up too," he complimented weakly.

Sabine's eyebrows raised slightly, and she gave him a look.

"Are you ever serious?"

Ezra chuckled, "Sometimes," he forced out before groaning again.

"Seriously, are you ok?" she asked, concern in her eyes again.

 _She really does care about me_.

"Yeah, I'm good," he reassured her, this time with the same seriousness in his tone of voice.

"What happened kid?" he heard another voice ask.

Ezra looked up to see Julian, his strange rifle raised and at the ready, ready to fight off anything that might assail the group.

"I had some kind of, _vision_ ," he said.

"A vision?"

He nodded, "Yeah, but it was really blurry. I couldn't make out anything," he looked at Sabine pointedly, "Except for that Sith Lord that we encountered on Lothal, I heard his _breathing_!"

Julian immediately whirled around, his rifle searching for a target to engage.

Sabine meanwhile tightened her grip on Ezra's shoulders, "You saw him, here?! Is he on Cloud City now?!'

Ezra shook his head, "No, no. He's not here now. The vision the forced showed me was from the future, I think a very _long_ time into the future."

At that note, Julian, and Sabine both relaxed a little.

"What do you think it means?" Sabine asked.

Ezra rubbed his temples, "I don't know Sabine. Whatever it means, I think something _big_ is going to happen here. But the force wasn't very inviting when it showed me the vision. It felt like it was trying to tell me that we won't have anything to do with it."

 _Like we don't belong here_.

"What do you mean?" Julian questioned.

Ezra pointed to the very edge of the circular platform below, "I can feel the force ebbing and flowing down there too, but its different, uninviting," he shrugged hopelessly, "Like I said, I feel like we aren't welcome here."

"Then we better get out of here," said Julian, adjusting the stock on his gun.

"Agreed," said Ezra, as Sabine helped him up and the trio left the way they came in.

* * *

Kanan felt the disturbance in the force the moment it occurred.

He was also very _keenly_ aware that his troublemaking Padawan was currently in the center of it.

He sent a note of concern in the force to his young student and immediately got a reply of confirmation.

They were alright.

Frowning, Kanan sent a wave of disapproval through the force to Ezra.

 _Your blue haired butt is in trouble when you get back_.

Ezra's force signature did the force's version of a gulp, and Kanan could already imagine the kid giving him a weak grin as he struggled to come up for an excuse for whatever mischief he had caused.

He sighed audibly, catching Hera's attention.

The whole group was currently situated around a table, eating. Baron Raynor had insisted that they try the cuisine. He was acting awful buddy-buddy around the crew, something that Lando had pointed out.

Raynor simply gave Calrissian a smarmy grin and said, _"It's the least I can do. Not only as a host, but before you lose everything in this upcoming match!"_

This comment eventually turned into _another_ proverbial dick-measuring contest between the two of them and Kanan had rolled his eyes so far back into his head he felt like they would never resurface.

"Something wrong Kanan?" Hera whispered to him.

"Oh, nothing much," he replied sarcastically, "Just seems that my young Padawan has decided to disobey our orders again."

"Are they ok?" asked Hera.

Kanan nodded, "Yeah, they are. There was a disturbance a second ago, but Ezra and the others are ok."

"So how in trouble are they?"

"Very."

Hera let a sly grin cross her face, "He kinda reminds me of someone that I used to know."

Kanan raised an eyebrow at her, "Who might that be?"

Hera in turn raised her eyebrow, not breaking his gaze.

 _Oh, she means me_.

"Now I _really_ don't know who you're talking about."

"Uh huh. Right."

Baron Raynor suddenly stood up, "Alright! Are we all finished here? I am itching to show you the casino!"

"Casino?" asked Lando.

"Where we will be competing, of course!"

Zeb stood up and stretched, "Well, might as well see the place I suppose."

Raynor clapped his hands together, "Perfect! Follow me then!"

He turned and walked out the door, dragging Lando and the Specters along with him.

* * *

The Casino in question was massive.

It was a gamblers paradise; slot machines galore and tables with various gambling activities littering the expanse of the place.

Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and the walls had a wooden finish with gold furnishings. The carpets were a lively velvet and various other expensive looking decorations everywhere one could look.

There were hundreds of people littered about the place, many playing the machines, some milling about near the back of the room, nursing drinks. Still, even more were huddled around the tables watching matches.

One of the tables was practically shaking with excitement as two gamblers faced one another. One of them rolled a cube and the crowd watched with baited breath as the cube rolled and landed on blue. The table immediately exploded into cries of joy and outrage as the gamblers either won, or lost money.

A bald man wearing a kind of headset walked up to the group and began attempting to talk to Baron Raynor.

"Ah, I almost forgot to mention, this is my second in command, Lobot," Raynor said, gesturing to the man in question.

Lobot let a small trace of annoyance cross over his face after being interrupted, but he quickly pushed it down and made his face neutral again.

He nodded at the Ghost crew in greeting and began speaking to Raynor again.

But before Lobot could even begin, Raynor turned away as a loud bell sounded off.

One of the patrons of the casino was shouting in excitement as he won a jackpot.

Raynor motioned for his blue uniformed guards to come with him and he stepped away to approach the patron.

"Hello citizen, I could not help, but overhear of your win!" he greeted the excited man.

The man looked confused, but still pleased with his victory, "Oh, um, yes Baron."

Raynor, still grinning, "How about you let my guards escort you to your winnings?'

The man's expression changed entirely, and confusion crossed over his face, "But don't I collect my winnings over there?" he said, motioning to the back of the room.

Raynor did not reply as his blue guards suddenly and roughly seized the man by the arms.

"Hey, what're you doing?!"

The man continued yelling as he was forcibly removed from the premises.

Raynor walked to the machine and reset it, clearing away the man's earnings.

The Ghost crew looked on in shock, even Lando looked disturbed.

"What the hell was that about?" Kanan hissed to Lando.

Lando shrugged his shoulders with a shaken look.

His question was actually answered by Lobot.

"That man was lucky the Baron was in a good mood," Lobot whispered to them, "He'll just be in a cell for a few days."

"A few days? For what?!" whispered Zeb, shocked.

"The Baron doesn't like people showing him up, and in his mind, any kind of success, especially in regard to gambling," Lobot leaned in closer to Calrissian, "For what it's worth Calrissian, I hope you win and kick his maniacal ass out of this city."

"Don't worry friend, I will," Lando grinned at Kanan, who in turn pretended like the man didn't exist.

Hera smirked at Kanan and nudged him, "Who knew helping out Lando would turn into a humanitarian mission?"

Kanan sighed, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

* * *

"Ok, now this is something else."

Ezra, Sabine, and Julian had emerged into the outside world a few minutes ago. After seeing large crowds of people rushing to get somewhere.

Following the flow of the crowd, the trio were shocked to find something they had yet to encounter in their adventures.

An amusement park.

"What is this place?" Ezra questioned.

"Looks like some kind of amusement park." Sabine stated.

Ezra looked at her with a quizzical eyebrow raised, "What's an amusement park?"

Sabine looked back him with pity, "You've never gone to one of these places?"

Ezra shook his head, his wild blue hair whipping all about the place.

"Well, it's supposed to be-

"It's a bloody nightmare," Julian interrupted her, "I mean look how chaotic it is. Look at all the children!"

A group of screaming kids ran by, followed closely by their parents.

Julian shuddered, "Horrifying."

"You sound like you've been to plenty of these before."

Julian hesitated, "I had… a son."

Ezra and Sabine glanced at each other.

Had?

"Right," said Sabine slowly, "Well, since Ezra has never done anything like this before, we might as well show him."

Julian snorted, "I doubt they'll let us in with our weapons on us."

"Can't you just do that active camo thing with out weapons or whatever?" asked Ezra.

Julian sighed, "Fine, give me your blasters and lightsaber."

Having properly concealed their weapons, the trio made their way into the park.

Thousands of people of all different kinds of species were running around the many attractions present.

Ezra and Sabine were currently looking at a map intently, searching for a ride to go on first.

"This one right here looks fun," said Ezra, pointing at a symbol on a map.

Sabine smacked her forehead, "Ezra, that's a food stand."

"Oh."

The crowd that flowed around them gave the trio a look or two, but considering the many exotic species and costumes that were already present they didn't look _too_ out of place.

"This whole city is one gigantic tourist trap."

Julian nearly did a double take at the sound of his AI's voice.

The AI was often times silent, mostly because he was constantly documenting everything that occurred, taking in every detail to send back to command on Reach. Because while Julian was an agent assisting rebels, he was also an explorer in a way. All the new species and environments were also being documented and sent back to scientists to observe. Physical samples were not required thankfully.

The only times Lincoln spoke to Julian anymore were in instances when command wanted to talk to him, or when the AI was bored.

"Command wants to talk to you, something about new developments."

Julian grit his teeth, "Not a good time Lincoln."

"Well, it can't wait, and you know it."

Julian groaned in exasperation, "Yeah, you're right, I'm gonna need to get these two here occupied with something then, they'll notice I've muted them in a minute or two and then they'll start asking questions."

A moment of pause from Lincoln.

"I've highlighted something for you on your HUD," he finally said, a hint of amusement in his synthetic voice.

Julian followed his line of sight to where the marker landed.

Right on an attraction called "Tunnel of Love."

"Lincoln, you evil bastard," he grinned, "Wasn't the real Abraham Lincoln a wise, kind soul?"

"Lincoln had a bit of a mean streak," the AI responded.

Unmuting his helmet, he listened in on the conversation his two charges were currently having.

"What's a rollercoaster?"

"Something that you won't be able to handle."

"Hey! You don't know that!"

Julian clapped his hands together, getting their attention, "Alright you two, since you still haven't decided, Uncle Julian will be deciding for you."

Leaving little room for argument, he pushed them in the right direction.

As soon as the logo of the building was in sight, Sabine immediately gaped and attempted to resist.

"Tunnel of Love? Oh, absolutely not," she seethed furiously.

"Come on you two, it'll be fun!" he insisted, his amusement growing larger.

"For the love of-

"Hello there!" one of the overly excited employees greeted them, eyeing Sabine, and Ezra.

Julian pushed the two forward, "These two lovebirds right here are looking for a good time together."

The employee clasped her hands together, "Perfect, we have just the thing for you two!" She motioned to the entrance.

Sabine forced a fake smile on her face, refusing to go now would draw pointless attention to themselves, "Can't wait for this!" she exclaimed, whilst giving Julian a very rude hand gesture behind her back."

"Oh, my goodness, you two are adorable!" the woman gushed as Ezra timidly offered Sabine his arm, afraid she might rip it off.

"Have fun you too!" called out Julian, nearly cackling with amusement.

The two attentively stepped into the two-seater ride car. Ezra's face was a myriad of red, while Sabine attempted to fake happiness, though the look in her eyes meant certain murder.

As soon as the two were out of sight, Julian muted his helmet again.

"Lincoln, I'm ready."

"Establishing a secure connection."

A beep and a hiss was heard and Admiral Runion's voice came through.

" _Julian, can you hear me?"_

"Yes sir, I can," he replied.

" _Good, high command wants to know of your progress so far, give me a condensed version here while your AI sends the specifics."_

"Well, we have finally managed to find a good location for the base," said Julian, "It's on a planet called Bespin, a tourist and mining location for tibanna called Cloud City."

" _Let me check my records for that…yep, that's a bloody city in the clouds alright. How is the location?"_

"No Imperial presence whatsoever, the tibanna extracts are so valuable to the Empire that they let the city have fairly high autonomy, so long as the gas flows and is sold at low prices exclusively to the Empire."

" _Any local authorities?"_

"Just the local government under the direct control of a Baron. The current Baron is a bit of an asshole sir, pardon the vulgarity."

" _Don't worry about it son, is he in the process of being… removed?"_

"You're aren't going to believe this, but the only chance we have of getting a friendly installed in this government is through a gambling game."

Runion snorted, _"I don't doubt it Spartan, just get the job done."_

"Working on it sir."

" _Right, well, command has another project for you, just something to keep an eye on."_

"What might that be?" asked Julian.

" _We are currently looking for political and military prisoners that the Empire might have locked up. ONI has a few leads here and there, but our list is far from complete. You might want to ask that Fulcrum lady if she knows anyone that might be suitable for rescue."_

"As soon as we get this base secure and ready I will be on it," Julian agreed, "Anything else?"

Runion hesitated, _"Well, there might be one actually. I've been hearing rumors swirling around the spooks about our Thrawn character."_

"Thrawn? Isn't he the reason we are in this mess to begin with?" asked Julian.

" _Pretty much. Now I haven't confirmed the rumors, but I've heard that Thrawn nearly discovered our cleanup operation on Utapau."_

Julian's eyes widened beneath his helmet, "You can't be serious, how?"

" _One of our bombs didn't go of correctly and the bastard noticed it somehow,"_ Runion explained, _"I don't know how in the hell that would have been possible, but somehow he did it."_

"But you said these rumors might be untrue," pointed out Julian.

Runion let out a huff of air, _"They just might be, however, considering the fact that ONI has ignored all my requests for clarification, I'm beginning to believe that they are deliberately hiding information from us."_

"You don't mean-

" _Yes, it's a common problem with these spook types,"_ Runion grumbled, _"Only they and them alone have the ability to save the universe or so they believe."_

Julian shook his head, "Just like the last war."

" _Indeed. Julian be careful out there, this Thrawn character is an enigma and we know absolutely nothing about him. His files are completely empty, which I suspect was done purposely by the Empire. Whoever he is, he's clearly intelligent and very dangerous."_

"Maybe Fulcrum knows about him, her organization has been gathering intelligence for far longer than we have. Maybe we are missing something?"

" _Maybe, maybe. Just be cautious, if he pops up somewhere for whatever reason, try to take him alive. ONI would love to pick his brain a little. But if he can't be caught, do not hesitate to take the killing shot."_

"Understood sir."

" _Very well then Spartan, I'll leave you to it then. Runion out."_

* * *

 _A/N: Another small piece of Julian's backstory coming out. I also like the idea of Ezra and Sabine just doing normal things that a kid might do. You have to remember that they are still very young, especially for how often they fight. Though I don't think they were quite expecting what Julian gave them, eh?_

 _I now finally have free time to work on this story and my new one I just put up on my account, hope you all like._


	26. Heating Up

"I can't believe this," Sabine grumbled.

She and Ezra had been in the tunnel now for three minutes and it was nearing its halfway point.

"Seriously, does everything in here need to be pink or red?" she continued her rant, "Honestly, did the person who designed this place have no idea what _contrast_ is?"

Sabine had grumbled and complained the entire way, mostly about the artwork that adorned the walls of the place. Ezra happened to be fine with this, as long as her wrath wasn't directed at him.

Of course, that didn't help the strange mix of feelings Ezra had at that moment.

Half of that was a mixture of annoyance and…nervousness? Of course, Ezra couldn't stand the situation he had been forced into, but in a weird way riding this thing with his crush gave him the butterflies. Mostly because of the horribly romantic things that Sabine had thankfully not noticed written on the walls.

The other half was confusion, mainly on Julian's part. Since Ezra had encountered the man, he had been a very worthwhile addition to the crew. But despite being with them for nearly a month now, the man was still an enigma, a mystery. He rarely took off his helmet and, not quite unlike Sabine, the man practically lived in his suit of strange armor, which none of them had figured out how it worked yet.

Everything about the guy was strange, his weapons, his friendly, bantering demeanor that could quickly turn to one of a closed off warrior with a strange past. It also didn't help that he had practically no force signature at all.

Hera and Kanan had both tried to crack open the shell of Julian's physique for nearly the entire time they were there. Kanan asked him about his lack of force presence, and Hera asked him about his past, but neither had gotten any headway with the armored man.

Ezra wasn't unobservant, you couldn't be if you wanted to survive on the streets. A sharp eye could be the difference between eating a meal that night, or starving to death in the morning. And there was more to Julian than what met the eye.

His pushing of Ezra and Sabine into this ridiculous ride felt like more than just a simple teasing. After dealing with Zeb as a roommate he could say was an expert on getting teased. Julian's act came far too suddenly, as if he simply decided that he needed to be alone for a moment to get Ezra and Sabine out of his hair.

"Hey Sabine?" he asked her, interrupting her own stream of thought.

"Yes Ezra?"

"Do you think that Julian was acting weirdly when he forced us into this?"

Sabine scoffed, "Well of course! I mean the guy is clearly as sadistic as Chopper."

Ezra shook his head, "No, I mean like, what if this was just a way to get us away from him for a few minutes?"

Sabine's expression turned serious and her brow furrowed.

"You know, come to think of it, he _was_ strangely silent while we were trying to figure out where to go," she admitted.

Ezra scooted closer to her, "Do you think he might be an agent or something, like an Imperial one?"

Sabine shook her head, "No, I doubt that. ISB types act far more differently than he does?"

"Like?"

"Like being very open about their past and constantly bad-talking the Empire and how it ruined their lives," said Sabine, "I learned that little tidbit about Imperials infiltrating rebel cells back at the academy."

"So, if he is an agent…"

"Then he's either a very unorthodox one, or a very bad one," finished Sabine, "And let's be honest, that guy has had every opportunity to throw us under the bus or kill us and whatnot. If he was an agent, he would have already done something."

"Maybe he's not an agent then, maybe we're just paranoid," said Ezra.

"More than likely," Sabine agreed, then her facial expression fell as she looked forward.

"Really?" she groaned.

Ezra looked to where she was looking and had to suppress a snicker.

There was a big sign in big bold letters that said _Kiss the Girl!_

"Kiss the girl?" asked Sabine rhetorically, outraged, "Why does it have to be kiss the girl? Why not just a kiss? First of all, that puts a _ton_ of pressure on the boy. Why can't the girl be the one to initiate? Secondly…

Ezra eventually drowned her ranting out again in his own thoughts.

What would it be like to kiss Sabine?

Ezra stole a glance at her, and thought some more. Not like he hadn't though about it before (karabast, there were plenty of things he did with her in his imagination), but now he was practically being ordered to do it.

He once again stole a glance at her and noticed that she was facing forward, her cheek directly parallel to his face.

Well, Ezra did want to further this relationship and a quick kiss on the cheek would probably only merit him a _couple_ broken bones.

 _Ah, screw it,_ he thought to himself, and he closed his eyes and leaned forward to give the deadly girl of his dreams a peck.

Sabine had just finished ranting and turned to face Ezra, "Anyways, what do you think-," she began to ask, but suddenly found Ezra's lips on her own.

As soon as they connected Ezra nearly had a heart attack. It was clear that he had not hit the intended target and the consequences for this would be dire indeed. But instead of recoiling in disgust and then strangling him, as he expected her to do, Sabine didn't. Instead, she relaxed and then began to kiss him back.

Ezra nearly opened up his eyes in shock, his mind attempting to comprehend what was going on, but he gave up as electric sparks flooded through his body and his brain became a hazy, hormonal mess.

 _Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh._

They had both moved closer to each other, Ezra had realized in his daze, her body heat mixing with his.

They sat there for what felt like hours, connected to each other, both refusing to separate as the kiss deepened.

But they had to come up for air at some point and after several more seconds of this, they both separated with a light popping noise.

Both of their faces were red from the intimate contact and Ezra immediately tried to explain himself.

"S-Sabine! I-I don't know what came over me!" he sputtered, flabbergasted at what just happened, "I mean, uh, it was, just, _supposed_ to be on the cheek and then you turned and then we, well, we um…

"Ezra," Sabine cut off his garbled mess of an apology.

Ezra gulped and closed his eyes, expecting to get a punch to the face.

When no hit came, he opened his eyes.

Sabines gorgeous features were as red as his and he noticed the same arousal in her eyes as there was undoubtedly in his.

"Its, fine, Ezra," she forced out, her face flushed, "I, uh, got carried away too."

She then shifted slightly away from him as she regained her composure.

"Do not speak of this to anyone or I will turn you into a shish kabob with your own lightsaber," she threatened.

Ezra nodded, eager to comply.

"And don't put to much thought into that kid," said Sabine, trying to keep up her mean demeanor, but failing as her voice came out softer.

Ezra let out a huge sigh as he leaned back and closed his eyes.

Well that could have gone better, but Ezra really didn't care.

Even if it meant nothing, oh boy, was that electrifying.

They both sat in silence for the rest of the ride.

* * *

"Well this is where Julian told us he was," said Kanan, as the public ferry floated down inside what looked to be an amusement park.

After the visit with Raynor had ended, Kanan immediately commed Julian and requested to know where they were. The armored man had of course sent them and after saying goodbye to Lando, the other members of the Ghost crew had snatched Cloud Cities idea of public transportation.

"Great," Kanan deadpanned, "An amusement park."

"This is why they went running off against orders?" Zeb growled, "An amusement park?"

"They have a lot of explaining to do," said Hera in a measured tone.

"Speaking of them, there's Julian," said Kanan, pointing out the impossible to miss hulk of green armor.

As they approached, Julian gestured towards the back of some ride, "Ho, Ghost crew."

"Ho, Julian," replied Kanan, "Why, pray tell, did you all leave the Ghost?"

"More importantly, where are the kids?" asked Hera.

Julian shrugged, "Well the idea to leave was mine, I apologize for that. I just felt bad for them you know? They clearly wanted to see the city and I wanted to oblige them. They are just teenagers after all. As for where they are, I kind of forced them on this ride."

"What ride is it?" asked Zeb, straining to see where their companions had gone.

"Tunnel of Love," read out Hera, smirking.

"Oh man," Zeb cackled gleefully, "That's a good one mate!"

"While it is kind of funny, you probably shouldn't have left them alone," Kanan pointed out sternly.

"Oh, c'mon, what could they possibly get up to in there?" asked Julian.

Just then, Ezra and Sabine exited the ride. Both of them looked a little nervous and their cheeks were slightly tinted pink.

Julian pointed at them, "See? They are totally fine."

"Ezra, Sabine," greeted Kanan.

"Oh, uh, hi master," greeted Ezra weakly with a small grin.

"While Julian has taken responsibility for your disappearance, that still doesn't change the fact that you went along with it," said Kanan with a raised eyebrow, "Same goes to you Sabine."

"Sorry Kanan," said Ezra sheepishly.

Sabine stayed silent, looking…bashful?

"Well if you are going to level any punishment, level it on me. Besides, like I said, they are fine, what could they have gotten up to in there anyways?" Julian interjected.

Kanan gave the two a one over again. Their body language was tense, nervous, and extremely embarrassed, and they both were deliberately avoiding each other's gazes.

"Right, well, for now let's get back to the Ghost."

Julian shrugged, "Let's grab that ferry thing before it leaves."

As the small group walked to the taxi, Kanan decided to grill his Padawan on where they went.

"So, Ezra, where did you three go? I felt something odd in the force."

Ezra brightened up a little bit, "Well, we actually explored some of the lower storage levels to see if we could find a place for a base."

Kanan looked at him, "And?"

"I actually found one, it was pretty hidden, but I could sense an empty space and I open up the lock with the force," said Ezra.

Ezra was rewarded with a pleased smile from Kanan, "So, you _have_ been paying attention to our lessons then."

"Of course!" Ezra defended.

Kanan then gave him a look of disbelief.

"Well, most of the time anyways," admitted Ezra sheepishly.

Kanan snorted and then ruffled his Padawan's thick dark blue mane of hair, "How many places did you unlawfully trespass?"

"Only a few."

"Only a few," Kanan repeated, shaking his head with amusement, "You kids are crazy."

"I learn from the best," retorted Ezra, then he looked thoughtful for a second, "And about the disturbance you felt, I can't really explain it. It happened in this room we found."

Kanan frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Well, the force showed me something, a vision of something to come I think," said Ezra seriously, "It involves that Sith Lord we encountered and another Jedi or someone."

Kanan put both of his hands on Ezra's shoulders and gave a serious look, "Kid, is that Sith Lord here now?"

Ezra shook his head, "No Kanan, he's not, and I don't think he will be for a long time. The vision I had was blurry. And the force was…unwelcoming in a way? I can't describe it."

"That's ok Ezra, the force works in mysterious ways after all," Kanan reassured.

"I think the force was trying to tell me that we have nothing to do with what happens there in the future."

Kanan put a hand to his chin in thought, "And it was just that room you found that had this situation?"

"Yes."

"Well, there really isn't anything we can do now kid, except do what we always do."

"Trust in the force?" guessed Ezra

"You bet."

Ezra nodded in agreement as he sat down on the bench of the ferry.

Sabine had seated herself down opposite of him and was about to put her helmet on when she noticed Ezra.

Her eyes met Ezra's for a brief moment and Ezra swore that he saw a smile tinge her lips.

* * *

 _A/N: Man this one was SPICY. I've never really written anything like this before and I was kind of nervous to post this one. Feedback might be needed lol. Too much?_

 _Anyways, the next chapter will definitely have some focus on the Imperials, who I haven't touched on in a while. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten Agent Kallus!_


	27. Talks

A cloaked figure watched the ferry leave, analyzing them and preparing to compile all the footage he needed.

Once he did so, the creature raised his arm to his snout like mouth and began to contact his masters.

* * *

Agent Kallus looked over the report submitted to him by one of his agents in the field, nodding and making mental notes of who was present. The two Jedi, the Twilek Pilot, the Mandalorian, the old astromech, the purple Lasat, and even the strange armored man that was sometimes spotted along with them.

It was the crew of the Ghost all right, and he had no doubt they were there for a reason.

If Kallus had to guess, they were looking for a new base, it made the most sense for them to be there without shooting up the place. The only thing Cloud City had, alongside it's tourist industry which Kallus suspected was not of any use to the rebels, was its massive reserves of Tibanna gas. If the rebels had wanted that, they simply would have taken it, which would have to have been done by force considering the massive security force protecting the reserves (whom the ISB may or may not have been spying on). Yet, they didn't and were in an amusement park of all the places a rogue group of insurgents could be.

No, they had to have been there to search for the location of a base, this was the most logical explanation Kallus could give of why they were on Cloud City, aside from just wanting to have an apparent romp through an _amusement park_.

Fumbling with the controls on his personal terminal, he input the numbers that would directly and urgently alert Grand Moff Tarkin that he was needed.

After a few transfers, and a few seconds, the stern face of the old Moff appeared before Kallus.

"Agent Kallus, I hope you have something important to report on," was the first thing the clearly impatient Tarkin said to him.

"Yes, Grand Moff," said Kallus in return. Kallus had his problems with Tarkin, particularly his arrogance and ruthlessness, but he still had a healthy respect for the power he wielded

"Get on with it then," Tarkin said bluntly.

Kallus swallowed, "Yes of course, one of my spies spotted the members of the Ghost on Cloud City on Bespin. I believe that they may be scouting out a location for a base."

Tarkin furrowed his brow, "Were these rebels only spotted once? Were there any other members of their cell present with them?"

Kallus shook his head, "No sir, but-

"Then why are you wasting my time right now, Agent Kallus? One sighting on a tourist world does not indicate that this is where they will set up their operations," Tarkin coldly stated.

"Grand Moff Tarkin, might I request a question of Agent Kallus?" a smooth voice belonging to someone Kallus could not see suddenly cut in.

Tarkin turned to his right and raised an eyebrow, "A question? What could you possibly wish to know?"

"Just one, Governor Tarkin," the voice said, sounding slightly amused at the older Moffs irritation.

"Very well then," said Tarkin, relenting and moving out of Kallus's sight.

Suddenly, the disembodied voice got a face, as a blue skinned man with eyes that positively glowed red stepped into the frame.

"Hello, Agent Kallus," the man addressed him coolly.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, uhm-

"Grand Admiral Thrawn," said the Chiss, tipping his head slightly.

"Grand Admiral Thrawn," repeated Kallus, "I don't recognize that name."

"I did not expect you too," the blue skinned man replied, "My question for you is quite simple, Agent Kallus. Where specifically on Cloud City did your informant spy them?"

"Well," said Kallus, "You might not believe it, but they were in an amusement park."

"How, _fascinating_ ," the man practically purred, "I believe our Agent Kallus is onto something Tarkin."

"How do you mean, Grand Admiral?" Kallus heard Tarkin ask.

"Its quite simple," Thrawn replied, pointing at what was more than likely a projection of the floating city in question, "As you can see, the entertainment section of the city is at the complete opposite end of where the gas reserves are. Nothing from the entertainment section leads to the fuel reserves, no public paths, no access tunnels, not even any sewers. Cloud City holds no other strategic importance except for those fuel reserves. If the rebels were here to raid them or scout, then why go anywhere near the entertainment sector?"

"Surely not to entertain themselves," said Kallus.

"These rebels have not been known to take breaks from their attacks on our peace and stability," Tarkin concurred.

"If they are planning an assault on the fuel reserves, then they are doing a poor job of it," said Thrawn, then he smiled, "And you and I both know that these rebels are far craftier than they look."

"Very well Thrawn, I see your point, and since you are so confident in Agent Kallus's assertion then you can go and personally oversee whether the rebels are indeed setting up a base."

"As you wish Grand Moff," said Thrawn, "I do suppose it is high time I learned about our adversaries more, _personally_."

Tarkin nodded and then looked at Kallus, "Await the Grand Admiral's arrival, and keep a low profile outside of the Bespin system, we don't want to scare our rebels off and lose their trail again."

"Very well, Grand Moff Tarkin," said Kallus with a salute, then Tarkin cut the feed.

* * *

The night cycle on Cloud City was different from what Ezra had experienced. On Lothal, Capital city was always dark at night, with very little activity in the streets, most likely from the Empires heightened patrols and curfews at night.

But here, where the Empire didn't have its teeth sunk in, the city thrived with activity, even well into the night. From his position in the Ghost's cockpit, Ezra could see the light from the city extend out into the dark void that was Bespin during its night hours.

Heaving a deep sigh, Ezra leaned back into his chair and tried to meditate. Truthfully, Ezra couldn't even remember why he was here in the cockpit instead of back in his shared room with Zeb trying to sleep like the rest of the Ghost crew was currently doing.

The automatic doors to the cockpit opened with a hiss.

Apparently not everyone was asleep, though why Ezra couldn't sense them, he had no idea.

Ezra turned his chair around to face the visitor and immediately had to stop his jaw from hitting the floor.

Sabine was standing in the doorway, or rather leaning against it with a small smile on her face, but her expression and posture was not what Ezra noticed first.

Sabine was out of her armor, which was shocking enough. What was even more shocking was her choice of sleepwear, which was a pair of short-shorts that showed off her strong legs and a white, _see-through_ tank top.

"Thought I might find you in here," she said, with a raised eyebrow and a half-smile.

"H-hi, Sabine," Ezra barely managed to force out, her appearance tingling his senses.

Sabine walked further into the room and sat in the chair opposite of him.

"Ezra, do you mind if we talk about something?" she asked… nervously?

Ezra immediately quenched his hormones, Sabine was rarely nervous and when she was, it was generally about something serious.

"What's up Sabine?" he asked seriously.

"Its about our, well…accidental kiss," she said.

Ezra felt his face flush slightly, "Yeah?"

Sabine suddenly got up and stood right in front of him, her hands on the shoulder rests and her face just inches away from Ezra.

 _Don't look down her shirt, don't look down her shirt!_ Ezra desperately thought to himself as his face grew hotter than the sun.

"I liked it," she whispered to him with a seductive, sultry look in her eyes.

Then, suddenly they were kissing again, this time far more passionately than before.

" _Mmmph_ ," Ezra moaned through the kiss as his hands explored her body.

Eventually, when they separated, they were both panting, and their clothing was disheveled.

Sabine then put her hands-on Ezra's shoulders and gave him a loving look, "Ezra, I need to tell you something."

"Yeah?" he asked in reply, not fully comprehending her in his now hazy mind.

"Wake up."

"What?" asked Ezra, confused.

Sabine then began shaking his shoulders.

"Ezra, wake up!"

With this, Ezra finally woke up from his very good dream and with a mighty yelp, fell off the side of his top bunk in his shared room.

Groaning with pain as he hit the floor, his ears heard a very distinct giggle erupt from behind him.

Rolling over, he soon saw that Sabine, fully armored, was standing next to his bed and trying to stifle a laugh.

"You know, for having the force, you Jedi sure are pretty jumpy," she said, giving him a big grin.

Ezra just groaned in response, _man_ was that a good dream that had been interrupted, ironically enough by the one who was starring in it.

Speaking of Sabine…

"Why did you wake me up?" Ezra asked groggily, still trying to recover from his rude awakening.

Sabine walked around his crumpled form and stood at the entrance of the room, "The match is today, remember? Hera says you need to get up."

Heaving a deep sigh, Ezra slowly stood up and stretched with a yawn, pushing his long bangs out of his hair, failing to notice that Sabine was staring at his now exposed stomach, which, alongside of being far more defined, now had a thin line of hair travelling downwards the crotch of his pants.

Ezra stopped stretching and shot her a quizzical look when he noticed she hadn't left, "What's up?"

Sabine shook her head, "Nothing," and then she left, the door closing behind her with a whoosh.

Ezra looked at the door quizzically and then shrugged to himself.

 _She sure is strange sometimes and that's one of the things I love about her_ , he happily thought to himself.

* * *

After getting dressed in his signature orange jumpsuit and equipping his tools and lightsaber, Ezra walked out into the common area where the rest of the crew was.

"Well, well, well, look who decided to show up," Zeb teased.

"You were supposed to get up thirty minutes ago Ezra, you knew what was happening today," Kanan chastised.

"Sorry, overslept I guess," Ezra shrugged.

"Teenagers," Kanan rolled his eyes.

" _Anyways_ ," Hera cut in before Padawan and Master got into another argument, "The match is today, and we have to keep our end of the bargain if we want a more permanent base of operations."

"Then what are we waiting for? We all know the plan, right?" asked Sabine.

"There's been a complication," said Hera, looking irritated.

"Lobot came around last night while I was watch," said Zeb gruffly, "Apparently someone recognized us and reported it to the Baron and him."

"You can't be serious!" Ezra exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, we are," said Zeb.

"Luckily for us, we still have a very good chance at pulling this thing off!"

The group turned around to see Lando and Julian walk into the common room.

Lando shot them a confident smile and said, "Lobot is turning out to be far more useful than I thought he would be."

"Such as?" asked Sabine.

"He snuffed out the news of your rebel status out quickly, the only people that know about you are a couple of guards, Baron Raynor, and a few of his lieutenants."

Julian put a data chip into the holoprojector of the dejarik board and the names and faces of the lieutenants in question filled the empty space.

"Two things are keeping that bag of hot air from yapping his mouth off to the Imperials," said Julian, "One; he thinks he is going to win this match and at that point he will send us on our way, and two; he doesn't want Imperial entanglements right now interfering with his rule here on Cloud City. However, when he loses this match, which he will even with his cheating, he will not be hesitant to start talking."

"Our job now will be to apprehend Raynor and his lieutenants," said Hera, "Lobot told us that he can't have his own men tracking Raynor's men or it will look suspicious."

"Lobot is on thin ice right now with Raynor," concurred Lando, "This will have to be our work if we want to get this done quickly."

"These three men right here are Raynor's most trusted men," said Julian, "We will be assigning four teams to this task, Lando and Kanan will be in charge of apprehending him on the scene, with assistance from Lobot and his guards, Hera and Sabine will be another team, Ezra and Zeb will be one more, and I will take the last man myself."

"You'll have to wait until I've greased this sucker, you will be making citizens arrests after all, and you can't do that until I've taken my rightful title as Baron," said Lando with a grin.

"And what will you do with them after this?" asked Ezra.

Lando chuckled, "Don't worry my blue-haired friend, these four have committed enough crimes here to give a hundred people life sentences! They won't be going anywhere."

"Any questions?" asked Kanan, "None? Good, let's get going then."

* * *

Kanan and Lando had taken a speeder designated for them by Lobot to get to the Sabacc match, Ezra and Zeb grabbed the Phantom, and Julian informed them that he didn't need a ride and took off.

This left Hera and Sabine alone aboard the Ghost, which was currently parked in a reserved spot (the pass for it was also given to them by Lobot) outside of an apartment complex where one of Raynor's lieutenants was currently inside.

"From the data given to us by Lobot, the lieutenant is located on the second floor of this complex, with one window leading into where he is staying," informed Sabine.

"Lobot sure has a bone to pick with Raynor, wonder what Raynor did to tick him off so much," said Hera.

"Who knows? All I know is that he's made our lives a million times easier," said Sabine, "Anyways, for a plan I was thinking…

"I flow low next to the window in question, you shoot it out, stun the lieutenant and then toss him back onto the ship quickly?" guessed Hera.

Sabine looked at her like she had just created a star out of thin air, "How did you know I was going to say that?"

Hera chuckled, "I know you well enough to where I can guess what you are probably going to do Sabine."

Sabine chuckled with her, but then a thought crossed her mind. Hera did know a lot about her, but certainly not everything, not her full past, not her heritage, and especially not the things she created.

Hera also didn't know about the kiss Ezra and she had shared accidentally in the tunnel.

Sabine had no idea what was going on with her, she never really had very much interest in Ezra before. Sure, he was a friend, and sure he was cute, and sure his infatuation with her had stopped being obnoxious and more of a shared joke between the two of them.

But after their kiss, things were different somehow. Of course, they weren't too different, Sabine was not some pathetic love-sick girl fawning over a handsome suitor, but she couldn't deny that her feelings in regard to Ezra had changed somewhat.

Puberty had hit Ezra like a truck. The now sixteen-year old had shot up in height since he had finally gotten a secure source of food, and his face and body were both evening out into those of a man. Listening to Kanan explain how to shave to Ezra had been one of the funniest and one of the cutest things she had ever listened too, Kanan could be a father if he wanted to be.

Maybe that's why she was having these weird feelings, Ezra is still the same old Ezra, joking, full of life, and dorky to the extreme, but he was changing physically.

 _Stupid hormones_ , Sabine thought to herself in frustration, remembering the incident that happened this morning.

That wasn't entirely it though, Ezra was becoming more and more heroic every day, he had once been a bitter, orphan only looking after himself after all. Now it seemed like the 16-year-old could hardly keep himself from jumping headfirst into danger.

She looked over at Hera, who was adjusting something on the Ghost's Navi computer. What if she asked Hera what to do? After all, she was far more experienced than she was with things like love.

This was going to bug Sabine until she managed to figure out just what was going on, and Hera would probably know what to say.

Sabine swallowed her pride and turned to face her mother-figure of a pilot.

"Hey Hera?"

"Yes Sabine?" she replied, not looking up from her task.

Sabine hesitated, "Could we talk about something?"

Somehow sensing Sabine's discomfort, Hera looked up from her now paused task, "Absolutely Sabine, is something wrong?"

"It's about Ezra," said Sabine.

"Does this have to do with his attraction to you?" asked Hera.

"Yes."

Hera frowned, "Is it making you uncomfortable? I know Ezra only means well, but I could talk to Kanan to get him to back off…"

Sabine shook her head, "No! It's not that, it's something else."

When Hera waited for Sabine to elaborate, she did, "Something happened between us in that tunnel thing. There was a really sappy sign that appeared in the ride, and Ezra thought that it would be wise to give me a peck on the cheek, apparently he did a risk and reward analysis in his head and thought it would be worth a beating."

Hera chuckled lightly at the metal image of Ezra going in for a quick peck and then getting immediately smacked down, "So what happened then?

"I turned my head to say something, and instead of my cheek, he got my mouth instead," said Sabine bluntly.

"How fast did you pull back?" asked Hera, trying to keep her face neutral.

"I didn't, I kissed him back!" exclaimed Sabine, tired of beating around the bush.

Hera's jaw seemingly dropped to the floor in astonishment, which slowly made way for a grin.

"No way," she finally said, shaking her head, "You two are trying to pull a fast one on me."

"I'm not kidding Hera!" Sabine hissed, "This is serious!"

Hera leaned back in her chair, a hand on her chin.

"Wow."

Sabine snorted, "Yeah, wow is right."

"Didn't you tell me you weren't interested in him in the slightest?" questioned Hera.

Sabine groaned in frustration, "I'm not! I don't know why I did what I did, I just can't explain it. I've kind of been blaming it on hormones, but the more I think about it, the more I'm not so sure about it."

Hera thought about that for a second, "Ok, how has your opinion of him changed since he joined the ship?"

"Well, it's dramatically improved," said Sabine, "I mean, he can still be irritating, but I know now that he only means well. I know that he had a hard life and that he needs us more than even he knows," Sabine paused, "And I've come to see some of Kanan's best qualities in him, the need to protect those who can't protect themselves, to do the right thing. He's become a good friend of mine too."

"So, you see him in a completely positive light now?" asked Hera.

"Yes, I'd say I do," admitted Sabine, then she gave Hera a quizzical look, "Wait, what does this have to do with my feelings about him? I already knew all this stuff."

"Because when I met Kanan, I thought he was the scruffiest nerfherder I had ever met in my entire life. He was a real piece of work when we first met. And look at us now."

Sabine's mouth turned into an "o" shape as she realized just what Hera was saying. It was rare to hear Hera speak about her relationship with the Ghost's resident Jedi.

"So, you think I may have a similar situation on my hands?" she asked.

"Maybe so," said Hera.

Sabine sighed in frustration again, "I'm just not good with this emotional stuff Hera, it doesn't come to me naturally like my art or explosives or anything."

Hera put her hand on Sabine's shoulder, "Sabine, you aren't bad at it, you're just confused right now."

"What do I do then?" she asked.

"How about you just try to be his friend for right now, work out your feelings later as time goes on," suggested Hera.

"I guess that makes sense," said Sabine, "I'm just worried that if I wait too long…"

"I'm gonna stop you right there," Hera interrupted, "That boy loves you, you know, that right?"

Sabine looked at her, shocked, "He does?"

"In his own way, yes," said Hera, "I'd be willing to bet money he'd follow you to the end of the galaxy."

Sabine pondered on that for a moment, a flurry of emotions running through her mind and body, possibilities materializing in her mind as she pondered.

"Ok, I think I'll give it a try, but…" she began to say, but was interrupted by her comm coming to life once more with Chopper's warbles.

"What is it Chop?" she grumbled in annoyance at the droid's interruption.

The pesky droid informed her that he needed physical assistance with the power line.

"Alright fine, fine, I get it!" she said, cutting off the droid's inflammatory rant, "Jeez Hera, where did he learn to use language like that?"

Hera shrugged, "He served in the Clone Wars, and I've heard some pretty interesting stories about the language the soldiers used."

Sabine blinked, "Right well, I'm gonna get on it then."

Before Sabine left, she pointed a finger at Hera, "Not a word of this to anyone, especially Ezra or Zeb."

"My lips are sealed," replied Hera.

With that, the door closed behind Sabine and Hera shook her head with a light chuckle.

"Teenagers," she said as she got back to adjusting the Nav computer.

* * *

 _Thump._

 _Thump._

 _THUMP._

"That's the barrage! Get going, the shells will cover us!" an armored man with the markings of a General roared to his soldiers.

With that, nearly 70,000 soldiers,1000 tanks, and 4000 armored vehicles rushed forward as quickly as possible.

Their destination was a position on the outcropping of a hill, that was now currently being shelled by the artillery stationed behind their lines.

The barrage of murderous fire from the stationary and self-propelled guns may have turned the hill into a fiery hell scape, but the enemy was far from defeated.

A barrage of equally dangerous red bolts flew towards the charging forces, which was quickly returned with a hail of yellow bolts fired back at the white armored defenders.

A massive, four-legged walker that had survived the barrage from the artillery reared its ugly head and fired two deadly salvos, disabling two tanks.

"Get behind that walker now!" roared the General, and two of the armored vehicles obliged him, dropping off a squadron of infantry. The walker, while heavily armed and very deadly, was cumbersome and vulnerable to attack from behind.

It really wasn't much of a surprise then, when a beam of pure red light fired from a shoulder mounted weapon ripped right through the underbelly of the walker, destroying it in a hail of fireworks.

Elsewhere, the line of defenders began to crumble as the massive spearhead pushed the mostly infantry force back.

It was a resounding success.

" _OBJECTIVE COMPLETE, TERMINATING SIMULATION,"_ a loudspeaker boomed, and suddenly all the destroyed Imperial equipment and troops disappeared, and the land reverted back to its original formation.

High above the simulated battleground, an older man onlooked the aftermath.

"Hmph!" he grumped, "Didn't get anything like this back during the old war."

Another man, much younger than the former, responded, "Humanity has progressed exponentially since that time, we calculate that if the same invasion happened tomorrow, humankind would repel it with a 94% success rate."

"94% percent exactly?" the older man asked, raising an eyebrow.

The younger man hesitated, "There are some decimal places, but I figured that it was hardly worth memorizing the decimals."

The older man chuckled, "I suppose not son, I suppose not. Tell me more about this place."

The younger man eye's flashed with excitement, this was his forte after all, "Well, this place was designed 11 standard years after the Human-Covenant war ended. We built it with the idea that around 50 or so would be scattered around the colonies so that our soldiers could have the best possible training without actually having to expend real equipment and without incurring any accidental casualties that could come with live-fire exercises. The way this place works is-,"

The older man put up his hand to stop him before he was ahead, "Thank you, but I think that'll be all I need Lieutenant. If I may, might I request a favor of you?"

The Lieutenant, though deflated from his cut off opportunity to show off his knowledge, perked up, "Yes sir?"

"The director of the Office of Naval Intelligence is currently visiting this location, could you please inform her to meet me here in this outlook?"

The Lieutenant looked apprehensive, "I'm not sure if she will agree if this message comes from me.

The older man reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope and handed it to the Lieutenant, not saying a word.

The younger man looked down at the old paper and gave him an even more confused expression.

"Sir, I don't know what I'm supposed to do with this."

"Give it to Director Dovington and tell her that Admiral Hood is waiting for her in E-27."

The younger man, though still confused, gave a snappy salute, and took off running.

Admiral Hood stood perfectly still, his back to the door, watching the stimulation rework itself.

And he waited.

He didn't have to wait long.

"Admiral Hood? You requested to see me?" asked the feminine voice belonging to the director of ONI.

The old man did not turn around, "Do you know what is in that letter I had the Lieutenant give to you?"

Dovington stared at the back of Hood's head, "No, I did not get the chance to open it."

"Do so now, if you please," he said softly.

A rustling of paper indicated that she was opening the envelope.

"This document is almost 40 years old!" she exclaimed, then she read it further, "It's a recommendation for the arrest of the Director of the Office of Naval Intelligence," she said shocked, then she looked up.

Admiral Hood had a magnum levied directly at her head.

"Tell me Director," he spat out, "Did you really think that you could get away with what you think you are getting away with?"

The Director, ever unshakable, composed herself, "I do not know what you are speaking about."

"Yes, you damn well do," he said, "You didn't think that we wouldn't notice the cloaked weapons you have placed around orbit around several Imperial worlds?"

The Director was silent.

Hood continued, "That letter you hold in your hands was one that I personally wrote up to the newly elected Hegemon, that letter resulted in the complete gutting of ONI, it was supposed to clean up Agents acting out on their own accord."

"I haven't done this on my own accord!" Dovington angrily spat back, "I know very well the things that the old ONI did. The cruel experiments, the destruction, the manipulation. I care about humanity!"

The old Admiral was silent for a moment. Then he lowered his pistol.

"Do you detect any lying on her part Keyes?" he asked the air in the room.

Said AI suddenly appeared by Admiral Hood's shoulder, "I could not, she appears to be sincere."

"Hmph, we shall soon see," he said.

"What is going on?" Dovington asked, now just as confused as the young Lieutenant was, "Am I not to be arrested and executed as my predecessor was?"

"No," said Hood flatly, "Because I have hidden your plan away from everyone in the military and our government, all the way up to the Hegemon."

Dovington looked at him, shocked.

"I don't know what to say," she finally admitted.

"The UNSC is watching you far more actively then you have been led to believe. They watch everything, including the general activities of your prowlers. An ensign noticed an anomaly in our reports and showed it to me. Once I realized what it was, I had it scrubbed from the system entirely."

"You agree with out methods then?" asked Dovington.

"In this case, yes," said Hood, "This operation carries an enormous risk of failure and we will need every backup option available to us, this is one of them."

"When you had the evidence destroyed, why did no one stop you?" pressed Dovington, "Surely that would seem suspicious to delete information about ONI."

Hood chuckled, "No one questions the war hero Dovington."

Dovington pondered this for a moment and then nodded, "I appreciate your help sir."

Hood waved her off, "I believe this is the right thing to do, I made plenty of decisions like this back during the war," then he fixed Dovington with a firm glare, "However, I must warn you, your actions must be approved by me from now on, understand? I am in charge of this operation and I will not have people going behind my back with solutions, am I clear?"

"Crystal sir."

"Good," said Hood, "Officially this meeting was about our ongoing search efforts to find Spartan 117 and progress in finding my old friend. Gotta give the people something, now that they know I am still alive. You are dismissed."

Dovington left without another word.

* * *

 _A/N: Ahem, well, uh, yeah. It's been a while hasn't it? I finally got back to writing this about a week ago and a lot has happened since then. Such as Rebels ending for one. Anyways, because I felt bad for making you wait so long for a chapter, I wrote up this 5000 word monster here, which is the longest thing I have ever written. Please tell me what you think, I love reading your reactions. Let's hope the next update isn't two months again. Sheesh._

 _Thanks for sticking with me!_


	28. What Goes Around, Comes Around

A lone star destroyer dropped out of hyperspace on the outskirts of the star system.

Normally this kind of activity was standard, especially in Imperial controlled space, but it generally occurred near populated star systems.

This one was barren.

As a matter of fact, the star destroyer, with its peculiar markings on its underside, was quite out of place here in dead space.

But the commandant of this particular vessel always had a purpose for his actions.

"Grand Admiral!" an ensign in a grey uniform shouted up to the blue-skinned Chiss who was occupying the bridge, "Agent Kallus and his ship have jumped into the system!"

Thrawn nodded, "Perfectly on schedule as well. Have Kallus board the Chimera and meet me in my quarters as soon as possible."

"Yes Grand Admiral," the subordinate replied.

Agent Kallus stood just outside the office doors of the resident Grand Admiral. Having been surprised by the strange markings on the underside of Thrawn's vessel, Kallus was also unprepared for the mood onboard the ship.

The Imperial ships of the line always had an air of orderly confidence that permeated throughout the crew. But this ship was also lacking the degree of fear that seemed to pop up whenever a high-ranking official was in charge, like Tarkin or Vader for example.

 _Whoever this Thrawn character is, he sure seems to be different_ , thought Kallus to himself.

His suspicions were immediately confirmed when the soldier standing guard at Thrawn's door stepped aside and let Kallus into the Grand Admirals office.

The walls were absolutely covered in artwork. New, old, Imperial, Republic, and even a few Rebel pieces were displayed. There were also a few storage containers for holos and Kallus swore he saw the helmet of a clone trooper from the clone wars era.

What really caught his attention though, was a section of a wall with a very familiar image that caused Kallus lip to curl upward in disgust.

"Ah, yes. It appears you are familiar with this bit of graffiti no?"

Kallus eyed the tall, imposing figure of Grand Admiral Thrawn. His red eyes were piercing and cold, and his demeanor was one of controlled calm. Kallus doubted that the Grand Admiral would even flinch if his flagship came under attack at this moment.

Kallus gave the phoenix symbol another glance and remembered vividly how the symbol had very nearly killed him back when the rebels had rescued Bridger.

"Unfortunately yes," replied Kallus, "This is the work of Sabine Wren I assume?"

The blue skinned man nodded, "Indeed it is."

"Why her work?" asked Kallus.

Thrawn gave Kallus a small smile, "To defeat an enemy, you must know them. Their history, philosophy, _art_. Sabine Wren has left me a plethora of pictures to study, such as this one that you noticed."

"An… _interesting_ strategy," noted Kallus, not quite convinced, "What have you learned precisely from this?"

Thrawn gave Kallus a light smile, "Not enough I'm afraid, I have only just begun my study of the Phoenix cell, I have been preoccupied with another task, one I hope to return to as soon as possible. Your discovery will allow me to study this cell."

"And break them apart," said Kallus.

"As I was directed to do," said Thrawn simply.

"This will be a more passive operation," said Kallus, "Mostly just observing and collecting of data. You should be able to give most of your attention to your other project that you are so adamant in pursuing."

Thrawn nodded, "Of course," then the Chiss tapped a button on his desk and a map of Cloud City appeared, "We have far more important business to discuss however, such as how the rebels plan to stay here."

Kallus set his face, "Then let's get to it."

* * *

"I still cannot believe we are doing this."

Lando Calrissian rolled his eyes at his newfound Jedi companion, "Come on, don't you have faith in your team?"

Kanan grunted, "Of course I do, its you that I don't have trust in!"

"Oh relax, with your mind tricks and whatnot we'll be fine, you remember the system we came up with?"

"Yes, I remember," said Kanan. Lando and him had devised a system of nonverbal taps to see if their opponent was going to be bluffing.

Kanan shook his head, "Still think this is wrong."

Lando audibly groaned, "Come on Kanan, lighten up! You need this base and this guy's a scumbag! You're doing a good thing."

"Part of being a Jedi was doing the right thing the right way," Kanan argued.

Lando raised an eyebrow, "And look where that got them."

Kanan let out a heaving sigh. His companion's bluntness, especially in moral matters was beginning to grind his nerves down.

 _My old masters would not be pleased_ , Kanan thought to himself. Then again, he didn't think they would be pleased with anything he had done since that fateful day of order 66. An image of Hera immediately flashed in his mind.

Suddenly Lando was waving his hand in front of Kanan's face, "Hey, space cowboy, you good?"

"Yeah," replied Kanan, "I'm good."

"Well then pick up the pace! We can't be late!"

"Right," said Kanan, picking up his pace.

* * *

"There he is," growled Zeb, looking through a pair of macrobinoculars.

"Lemme see!" requested Ezra attempting to grab the tool.

"Yeah, I don't think so," snorted Zeb, extending a hand and pushing the teen away.

Ezra pouted and crossed his arms his arms for a moment, then he got an idea.

"Yep, that's the lieutenant alright," said Zeb, ignoring Ezra, "Blue uniforms with a gold stripe and a beard."

"Uh huh," said Ezra, beginning to focus.

"He doesn't look armed, should be relatively easy to… HEY!" roared Zeb as Ezra wrenched the binoculars from his with the force.

"Thank you VERY much for letting me borrow these," said Ezra with a smirk, "Now where...?"

"Give me THAT," snarled Zeb, snatching the macrobinoculars back and bringing them back to his own furry head, "Oh great, now we lost him!"

"Well, we wouldn't have lost him if you had just given them to me," said Ezra, not backing down.

"Are you serious... You know what, never mind. We need to find this guy NOW."

Ezra snorted, "Would you relax? He went around that building right there."

"And how would you know that?" exclaimed Zeb.

Ezra tapped to his forehead, "Strong in the force, remember Zeb?" Then he did a running leap off the side of the short building they were on.

"Karabast I hate it when he does that," grumbled Zeb as he scrambled after him.

* * *

"Stealth systems at 79% power," stated Lincoln, "You have 8.9 hours until the system is forced to reboot.

"Thanks for the update Lincoln," said Julian.

 _That should be more than enough power until Raynor is stripped of his Baron title._

Julian moved to the right a little bit to avoid a pedestrian as he continued to stalk the lieutenant he had been assigned to take down.

"There is a fork in the pathway ahead, one leads to another square, and another one leads to a public park," said Lincoln."

"Should be going to the square," said Julian.

The lieutenant turned towards the park.

"You were saying Nostradamus?" asked Lincoln, amused.

"Hilarious," said Julian, shaking his head.

"Shaking your head whilst you are invisible seems counterproductive," teased Lincoln.

"You know that I did it, and that's all that matters," said Julian, as he turned into the lush public park.

* * *

"Welcome," said Baron Raynor to Kanan and Lando as they approached.

"Baron," said Lando with an overexaggerated, sarcastic bow.

If the Baron noticed Lando's slight, he pretended to ignore it as he continued to beam at the two.

"I didn't know Mr. Jarrus was to be accompanying you today," said Raynor.

The way he said Mr. Jarrus confirmed Kanan's suspicions of his ill intents.

"I'm just a tourist looking for excitement," said Kanan simply, with a shrug of his shoulders.

 _Act casual._

"Well, I can assure you that it will exciting," said Raynor, "Lets get started then, shall we?"

Lando and Kanan both looked at each other.

"After you," motioned Kanan, then they both followed Raynor into the casino.

* * *

"And here we are," said Raynor, stopping in front of a small table.

The casino was packed to the brim with people. Most were civilian, which worried Kanan a little, but many more were guards, which worried Kanan a lot more.

His worries were quickly extinguished when Lobot appeared in the middle of the mass of guards. He gave a curt nod to Kanan.

 _Well that's one problem we won't have to worry about. Now we just have to win this match._

A paper contract was sitting on the table.

"Sign here, and we will begin" said Raynor.

"Let me read the damn thing first, cool your jets," said Lando, picking up the paper.

Raynor raised an eyebrow, "I can assure you I won't take more from you then what we agreed upon."

"I'm not worried about that, I'm worried that you left out what you lose when I win," snorted Lando.

Raynor rolled his eyes, but let Lando inspect the document without another complaint.

"Alright, it checks out," said Lando, taking a seat with Kanan standing directly behind him."

Lobot approached the table and explained the rules.

When he was done, Kanan turned to Lando.

"May the force be with you."

"May it be with us," murmured Lando, and then the match began.

The next three hours were the most nerve wracking experience Kanan had ever been through. Lando and Raynor were both masters of the con, and Kanan was absolutely sure Raynor had cheated multiple times. Of course, the game went on and on and on, neither side gaining an advantage. To even the odds a bit, it had been decided that three games of sabacc would be played. Lando won the first, then Raynor won the second.

Now it was all down to the wire.

"Your move," said Lando, eyeing Raynor.

Kanan tapped Lando's foot with his own to signal Raynor's confidence.

Raynor let out a laugh and set down his cards, a very good hand, completely unbeatable except in one way.

"I believe that I have won, you played a good game Calrissian," said Raynor as the crowd began to either whoop or boo.

Lando simply smiled and laid down his cards and Kanan couldn't help but grin as Raynor's smirk vanished and was replaced by an angry scowl.

"Idiots Array! How is this possible?" sputtered Raynor.

"I believe I have won," said Lando, smiling.

"You have won nothing!" snarled the red-faced Raynor, "Guards, seize them!"

None of the guards moved.

Raynor turned around at the guards, "What are doing?! I am the Baron and you will follow my direction!"

"You are not the Baron anymore," said Lobot, "That title now belongs to Mr. Calrissian."

Raynor looked like he had been slapped, "You, you, _traitor_!" he spat, flabbergasted.

Lando rolled his eyes, "The melodrama is giving me a headache, please just arrest him and his associates already."

The guards looked to Lobot for confirmation, which he gave with a nod.

They rushed forward and put Raynor and some of his allies in cuffs, much to his protest.

"Arrest me! On what grounds?" he exclaimed.

"The grounds that you granted yourself when you abolished the city council and focused all the power of the city into the Baron, power that I now wield," said Lando, a righteous cheesy grin on his face."

Kanan gave the signal through his commlink as the ex-Baron began to suddenly laugh.

"You think you've won, haven't you?" he sneered as the civilians were dispersed by the guards.

"Why yes, actually I do believe I have," said Lando.

"I know exactly what you are, Jarrus, a rebel," he laughed, "Soon, the Empire will be here to crush you like the bug you are!"

" _Kanan, we've secured our lieutenant, may or may not have smashed a couple windows."_ Hera spoke into Kanan's commlink.

" _We got our guy as well,"_ Zeb's gruff voice filtered in.

" _Make that three,"_ added Julian.

"My team got all his lieutenants," he stated to Lando.

"The Empire will not be coming here at all," said Lando to Raynor.

Raynor looked extremely confused, "How did you know about…" Then he looked slowly at Lobot.

"You," he said, "You were one of the few that I told you about that plan! I thought I could trust you, you snake!"

"You lost my trust when you began to abuse your power," said Lobot.

"Take him away please," ordered Lando.

The guards obeyed his instructions and Lobot turned to Lando.

"We will need to make an announcement to the city and assure the Imperials that our policy of cheap exports have not changed. I will prepare that now." Then he walked off, leaving Lando and Kanan alone in the now empty casino.

"Y'know, that almost seemed to easy," said Kanan to Lando.

Lando shrugged, "Hey, an easy victory is an easy victory."

"Hmph," said Kanan, then he shook his head, "Man, an idiot's array, what are the odds of that?"

"Hey," smirked Lando, "The force does work in mysterious ways."

Kanan eyed Lando for a pregnant moment, then both men broke out into fits of laughter. Whether it was because of the joke, or out of pure relief, one couldn't tell.

* * *

On the outskirts of the Bespin system, a certain Grand Admiral was watching the spectacle.

His red eyes scanned the holo where newly assigned Baron Lando Calrissian stated his goals for the city in his first address as Baron.

While the ousting of Baron Raynor was an interesting set of affairs, Thrawn found it quite irrelevant in light of new information he had discovered. Or rather a _lack_ of new information.

It had been 48 standard galactic hours and the rebels had still not left the planet.

The phoenix cell, or specifically the Ghost always stayed on the move to survive. It was in Sabine Wren's phoenix painting. The artwork was created with a spray can, and it was a very sloppy work. Thrawn could tell this was not due to a lack of talent, but rather a lack of time. Reports of earlier engagements with the Ghost always ended with the small group on the move, as a matter of fact, they never stayed after a victory.

"Unless they mean to not move at all," said Thrawn aloud.

As Calrissian finished his speech, Thrawn turned his hollow off and let a small smile cross his face.

"All according to plan."


End file.
